Chloe Smith went Jackson
by prankster105
Summary: Chloe thinks that she's just another ordinary texas girl having to deal with parential issues. She's managing a ranch on her own when a rattlesnake epedemic threatens to destroy her home town. In the proccess what will she learn about her family's past?
1. name's Chloe Smith

My name is Chloe and this is the story of my really messed up life. It all started with a horse about 9 years ago...

It started as just another hum-drum weekend. I live on a ranch. We only have two old herding horses for herding the cattle. There's a creek on the western edge of the ranch that I love to go down to on the weekend. So, anyway there I was walking through the woods and I apparently went in further than I had before because I ended up in front of a run down wire fence, and when I looked up there was a whole field full of horses. I don't mean just any horses, either. I mean pure wild mustangs. When I whistled they all looked up, but none came to me. So then I tried clucking and apparently one was slightly familiar with what that meant and it came to me. When I got a good clear view of it, it was a beautiful buckskin stallion. He looked like all I'd ever wanted in a horse. He was young, fit, and healthy. He was also a pure bred mustang. I could tell this because of the way he held his head in that proud way that mustangs do, not truly tamebut not entirely wild either. but this horse was different from the rest somehow. I couldn't tell what at the time. Only later would I discover that it was fierce loyalty to the ones who were close to him.

As I was standing there gawking at him I hadn't realized that I had been reaching out my hand to touch his muzzle until I actually touched his muzzle and he just snorted as if to say,"_ this feels different." _Quite frankly I had to agree, but at the same time it just felt right. Like I was meant to be the rider of _this_ horse. All the sudden I felt a shove and realized that the stallion had just nuzzled me. I looked at him and blew through my nose into his nostrils. This was an old apache technique in greeting horses and telling them that you're not a threat. Then I started to think, what am I going to call him. I can't keep calling him boy or stallion. Then I had it, Buck. That's what I was going to call him. Suddenly I heard a voice come from the right side of me,"I've been trying to tame that stallion for months and he won't even come near me." The voice made me jump a little. Luckily the stallion didn't bolt off, although he did look like he wanted to. Now that I look back on that day, I think that stallion stayed _because_ of me. I looked to my right and right there next to me was and older man with a gray roughly trimmed beard and gray, shaggy, salt and pepper hair, like he shaved and gave himself haircuts with a hunting knife. Then I said,"Sheesh, don't do that! Who are you anyway?" He answered," Oh, sorry. Name's Will."

"Will? Will what?"

"I don't have a last name. I was raised in an orphanage and dumped there. So I grew up without a last name." "Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

" It's alright. Most people asked the same question." Will said with a grin.

"So do you have a name for him then, since you obviously own this place?" I asked.

"Actually I don't have a name for 'im, but I was thinking maybe naming him Buck." He answered.

"You and I think a lot a like, then, because that's what I was thinking of naming him. At least secretly anyway." I answered a little sheepishly. Will gave vent to a little chuckle." Well that's not gonna be a secret anymore. Where do you live, if you don't mind my asking?" "Oh, not at all, and I live on Hunter Ranch. I usually like to walk through these woods on the weekend. Guess I went a little farther in than I should have." Will got a surprised look on his face. I was confused by this until he said,"Kid, that's at least fifteen mile area covered in woodlands and rattlesnake nests! Do you realize how lucky you are not to have gotten bitten my a snake much less get lost in those woods." "Oh, not at all, my brother, who is also named Will, taught me these woods so that I know them like the back of my hand. He also taught me how to avoid rattlesnake nests. So, there is no way for me to get lost or bitten." I answered confidently. "Well, next time just call me and I'll pick you up if you wanna visit. My ranch is the Ranger Ranch. I try to gentle Mustangs so that they can be ridden." He saw me draw breath for another question, but he held up his hand to forestall it. "I always make sure that the people that I'm selling them to are gentle riders not the roughian that saws at the reins type." I sighed, because that was actually what I was about to ask. How did he know that was what I was going to say anyway? Apparently I asked that out loud so he said,"I could tell you going to ask that because of the way you handled Buck. Most people would just start to pet him or be afraid of him, but you didn't. You just walked right up to him, put your hand on his muzzle, and then blew in his nostrils. Old Apache trick, right?" I answered," Yeah, how did you know?" "I use it myself." Will said. Simple enough answer. "Your mom's name is Lynn right?" I answered a little hesitantly,"Ye-ah?" "Well she taught me that trick. Anyway, I have an opening for an assistant, and you seem to know a fair share about horses. I also train dogs for herding cattle too. That is if you want to help me with that" "I'd love to. I'd have to check with my parents first, of course, but I'm sure they'll be fine with it. In fact, they probably won't even care, because they never really notice me."

**2 hours later**

"No!" said my mom. "I will not allow you to work with him!" "Why not?" I asked trying to keep my cool. "Because it's dangerous work." she answered. "Mom, ranching is dangerous work but somebody has to do it. That just happens to be me because you're always off with _him_, on some date or other." "Chloe, you will not talk about your step-father like that!" "I can, and will because he's mean and cruel, and he doesn't even care about me. If you don't stop going on these_ dates_ it will drive the ranch to bankruptcy. I am barely managing the ranch by myself and the only other person who has ever truly helped me with managing the ranch was my _birth_ brother, who by the way, you sent off to college without even letting me say good-bye! Do even realize that _I_ am the one having to make money appear to to pay for your dates, not to mention just the regular upkeep expenses of the ranch...and I'm only thirteen! Do you realize that saturdays are the only days that I get even a half hour of free time? The rest I'm either having to do homework or pay bills! I'm a kid, for crying out loud! I shouldn't have to be the one paying the bills and taking care of the ranch. I mean sure I should have to do my regular chores and stuff., but I mean when was last time you actually looked at my report card. My grades are slipping. They used to be A's when my brother was here, but now they're barely scraping by even by the public school's standards. I have a D- and even that is being gracious. I'm about to be expelled because of my irritability and grades. I stay up until midnight just trying to do homework because I spend the rest of the day taking care of bills and making budgets. Where do you think the money for you to buy your evening gowns comes from? Hmm? It comes from my college fund!" My mom looked horrified when I said that, because she had wanted me to go to the best equastrian school in the state of texas and that was expensive. Then her expression turned pained when she realized that all that I had said was true. This was the first time that I had truely blown my top and told her all that I had foudn out from the budget. Then my mom finally said,"Is he going to pay you?" "Yes, about 550 a month. It'll be just enough to scrape by but it will be enough," I gazed long and hard at her suddenly I added one more thing as I went over my math in my head. then I added,"_If_ you stop going on so many dates and stop buying so many designer gowns." I could see my mom doing the math in her head and realization dawned in her eyes."You're still allowing a bout a hundred dollars a month for extra." she said. I nodded and said,"Fifty dollars for one date a month. I may be upset, but I'm not that cruel. And anyway the other fifty I'm setting up as an emergency fund." "That's my girl." my mom said with a smile. I smiled back. "So, does this mean you'll let me work with him?" "Looks like I don't have much choice, now does it?" "Nope." I answered with a grin.

**The next day****.**

"Good. So you'll pick me up about 3:45 after school?" "Yep." "Well, OK, then see ya later." "OK,bye." _click_. "OK, mom. Will os gonna pick me up around 3:45 after school and then I'll try to be home by five. That'll be my work schedule for him." I called up the stairs to my mom's room. "Alright, Chloe. I'll see you when you get home then." "I gotta go to school now bye. love you." I called as I headed out the door. I spent the rest of the day at school. Will was waiting for me at my house in a beatup old ford truck. I started to throw my schoolwork in the truck but he just shook his head no. So instead I put my backpack inside and changed into my usual work clothes, which consisted of a flannel long sleeve shirt with a white short sleeve shirt underneath, a pair of dust covered jeans and a pair of workboots. when I came back out Will looked me up and down and looked impressed."From the looks of your jeans you do most of the work around here." I looked up as he said that. "Yeah I do. until just recently I had even paying all the bills using my college fund." Will grimaced at that and took in a sharp breath,"Wow, that must have been tough on you. I bet you had your eyes set on some equestrian progam at Texas A&M." "Yeah. How did you know?" "Because I could tell by the way you immediatly bonded with Buck that you want to have a career with horses. That's another reason why I invited you to work with me. You just have a certain_ way_ of conecting with horses." "Well that's very flattering but our two herding horses that we have won't let me near them. They are the only horses I've ever known until I met Buck." "You only have two horses! Well that's about to change as soon as we get Buck broken into the saddle, you can have him. By the way I never caught your name the other day," "Oh. Sorry, name's Chloe Smith."


	2. chapter 2

**Will's POV **

About fifteen minutes later we arrived at my ranch. I watched as Chloe gained Buck's trust. It was amazing. She would just walk to him and first just rest a makshift halter on his face and hold it on with her hands and then begin the slow proccess of getting it on his head. Once she got that on him she let him get used to it before she put the lunge line on. Eventually she taught him all the basic cues for lunge line excercises. So, eventually, after about three hours work- I know was way past the one hour I had given her- She got him trotting, jogging, cantering, galloping, and walking to the cues, without any voice commands. It was amazing really, the connection se had formed with Buck in those three short hours. With most horses like Buck, it would take months just to gain their trust, but with Buck I could tell that he trusted Chloe to the utmost of his ability, and that he would always give her his all. She called Buck in and took the lunge line off. She gave him free reign and he galloped back to the herd. Then she came back to the barn. I snuck behind her and said,"Boo!" It seemed like Chloe jumped about ten feet off the ground. She yelled,"Would you please STOP doing that! It's annoying!" I answered a little taken aback,"OK sorry. I won't do it again." Then it seemed that she couldn't help a smile nad she burst out laughing,"Ha! That was great!" I couldn't help a chuckle. Then I said,"Apparently your patience was running a little more thinly than it looked." "Yeah, you can say that again." I drew breath but she held up a hand,"That doesn't mean you should," I sarted to laugh and she grinned. Then she went sober as she lapparently thought about something. She sighed and said,"My brother would always do the same thing." "Oh, I'm sorry." I said. "No, actually that sigh was more one of contentment than anything year is the final year of his college scholarship and then he'll be home. The end of his scholarship lines right up with christmas day actually. So, it'll be like getting a christmas present, and that would be the best present I could ask for." She said with a twinkle in her eye. As I watched this I thought about nice it would be to have a sibling that cared this much.

**Chloe's POV**

As I left Will's ranch I realized the time. It was 7:30. I silently got mad at myself for getting so carried away in my work. I asked Will to take me home and he readily obliged. Once I was home I called my mom. I figured that this would be the better option than waisting my voice trying to find out if she was in the house or not. My mom picked up the phone,"You said you'd be home by five." she said into the speaker. "I know what I said but I mean come on. The mustang stallion I was working with today was a natural but I also had to gain his trust. Will was surprised that it didn't take longer. Plus I managed to get a halter on him and got him to respond to lunge line cues alone. Even you have to admit that that's progress." "Alright fine that is a lot of progress for one day, but still I had planned on all of us going out to eat tonight but since you weren't home we had to go alone." "I know, and I'm sorry. But I plan to work with him the same amount of time each evening. So from now on Iplan to be home by 7:45. OK?" I said. My mom answered,"Alright, but don't plan on being late again." "Alright, mom. love you. Bye." I said and huung up. Then I realized that I forgot to tell her one more thing. I called her back and she said,'What is it now, Chloe?" she asked in a slightly peeved tone. "Sorry to interupt again, but I forgot to tell you one more thing. Will said that as soon as we got Buck saddle trained i can have him. Besides we need cattle herding horses that don't hate me. When I first met Buck, I instantly made a conecction with him. It's almost as if I know what he 's feeling. That's why it only took three hours for me to get him to respond to lunge line cues." "Alright, alright. I get it you wanna keep him. I see your point, so you can keep him." she said. "Thank you _soooo_ much mom." I said. "Bye. love you too,Chloe." and then she hung up. After about five minutes I started to get hungry so I went to the fridge and looked to see what all we had. Finally I decided that I would have to go into town to get some decent food. So I got on my bike and rode into town. Once I got to the local H-E-B I parked my bike ont the bike rack and put my bike chain on it. I walked in to the grocery section and picked up a loaf of bread, a package of turkey slices, and a package of american cheese slices. I went up to the cash register and paid for my lunch items. I put the bread and stuff in the basket on my bike and took it off the rack. I started to pedal back to the ranch when I saw Will's truck going into town. I turned around and started to pedal beside his truck. When he finally saw me he smiled and gunned the engine for a second and then ccame back to normal speed. I got a mischevous smile on my face and mouthed the words,"You're on." Then I started to pedal faster and Will sped up too. We were both smiling like maniacs as we raced each other back to the store. Only I never made it back to the store. As I looked over at Will, his face went from happy to horror striken as he looked just to the right of his truck up the road. When I looked up there was another car racing towards me. One second, I was looking at a car racing towards me, the next it was blackness. Total darkness.

**Will's POV **

I watched horror-striken as the car smashed into my daughter. My _only_ daughter. The instant that car hit her I stopped my old beat up pick-up, and jumped out of the truck and ran over to her. Chloe was limp. I felt her neck for a pulse. She still had one, but it was faint. I got my cell out and dialed 9-1-1. Then I got her into my truck and drove like mad. I broke the speed limit and had to explain my reasons multiple times to cops until finally I got to the hospital. When I got there I told the desk what happened and they asked me what my relation was to Chloe and I answered confidently but worriedly,"I'm her father." Then I followed her into the emergency room. They had to take her to the OR so i had to wait in the waiting room. After what seemed like hours, the doctor came out and said," Mr. Will." I stood up and said,"That's me," The doctor motioned me towards a back room. When we were there, he closed the door behind him and said,"She'll live. We had to perform an extensive surgery on two of her ribs and herleft wrist has been permanently disabled. Her right leg is broken, too .She will need physical therapy to walk again." At that, I almost broke down. My only daughter, disabled for life in her wrist and might not be able to walk again without therapy. I was heartbroken to hear her story abut having to pay bills and even more so about having to pay them with her own college fund. He knew that he had to do something to help her and so decided to pay her 550 a month. I mean a thirteen year old! But none the less, I had. Suddenly I was snapped out of my trance when the doctor said,"Surprisingly the injuries light compared to most accidents that happen like this. In most cases the vistim either ends up in intensive care or...dead." Suddenly I realized how lucky Chloe was to have escaped this accident alive. When this realization hit me I said,"Can I see her now?" The doctor answered,"Yes. She's asleep right now. She's already had a visitor before you. A young man by the name of Chase. You can stay with her through the night. By the way, you're her father? It says in her records that she never knew her biological father." "I know. She herself doesn't know that I'm her father. I was hoping to break it to her gently. But I guess I'll have to tell her now. At any rate thank you for saving her life. I also have a question. Does riding a horse also count as physical therapy or does she have to come back here for it?" The doctor looked at me sympatheticly and said,"I know she was your assitant and was working with you on a horse but she'll have to come back here for the therapy." Another thought struck me and I said,"what about her ranch? minimum it take's one person to run the ranch, do the chores, herd the cattle, and muck out the horse stalls." The doctor looked at me with pity and said,"I know. I own one myself, but if there's no one to work that ranch it'll go bankrupt and get forclosed. Although, if her mother actually started to take care of the ranch, and if you pitched in, you might stand a chance of saving it." I could never work with her mother again. Not with how we got along last time. But then again this was for Chloe's sake. She loved that ranch. In fact, that ranch was the only place she had ever called home. I _had_ to make it work. Finally I answered the doctor,"Alright I'll call her mother after I see Chloe and make sure that she's alright." "Alright then, she's in room 323. Try not to wake her up." "Doctor's orders are the law in the hospital." I said with a grin. The doctor smiled back.

**Hey everybody. on request of my readers I hve divided up my extremely long first chapter. sorry i made so long but I was still new. I'm finally figuring out how to update and add chapters and stuff so sorry if you think these next few chapter's are new. plez don't kill me*runs and hides behind a couch* comment in flames if you must.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chloe's POV**

_flashback_

_I had just woken up. Then I remembered what the doctor had said,"When you wake up again, call me on this vocera voice pager." I grabbed the voice pager and said into it,"Call Dr. Rogers." then it answered in that weird monotone voice,"calling doctor rogers" When it turned on I was about to say something when I heard the doctor say,"-You're her father? It says in her records that she never knew her biological father." Then I heard to my astonishment, Will's voice say,"I know. She herself doesn't know that I'm her father," Well, that cat's out of the bag, I thought to myself. Then I continued listening,"I was hoping to break it to her gently, but I geuss I'll have to tell her now." I felt bad for eavsdropping but my curiosity got the better of me, so I kept listening. I heard Will speak again,"At any rate, thank you for saving her life. I also have a question." I knew what he was going to ask and had to stifle a giggle. I already knew the answer to it because I had asked it myself-"Does riding horses also count as physical therapy, or does she have to come back here for it?" The doctor answered Will saying,"I know she was your assistant and was working with you on a horse, but she'll have to come back her for physical therapy." Will was silent for a few seconds then said,"What about her ranch? Minimum it takes one person to run the ranch, do the chores, herd the cattle and muck out the horse stalls." When I heard Will say that I was struck by how much he cared. I mean we'd only known each other for what? Two- three days max. Then doctor spoke again,"I know. I own one myself, but if there's no one to work that ranch, it'll go bankrupt and be foreclosed. Although, if her mother actually started to take care of the ranch, and if you pitched in, you might stand a chance of saving it." Will stayed silent for a long time. I knew that my mom wasn't the easiest person to get along with. Will probably didn't want to have to work with her again since it clearly didn't work the first time. After about five minutes of long dreadful silence, Will said,"Alright, I'll call her mother after I see Chloe and make sure that she's alright." I could hear the smile in the doctor's voice as he said,"Alright then, she's in room 323. Try not to wake her up." I could hear the eqaul grin in Will's voice as he answered,"Doctor's orders are the law in the hospital." Then I turned the voice paige off and waited to hear his familiar gate. _

I assumed a position of staring out the window to wait for Will, _my father_, to come in the door. Then I heard the door creak open and there, in the doorway was Will. I was an ADHD kid so I end up blurting out the first thing that comes to mind so, naturally I ended up saying very cheerfully,"Hey, Dad!" The instant I said it I said it I clamped a hand over my mouth. Will on the other hand looked like his jaw muscle had been disabled so it looked like a permanent jaw drop. Then I got scared because whenever I did something wrong, and my stepfather found out about it, he would hit me until I was unconcious. Then I managed to sqeak out to Will while cowering in my hospital bed,"I eavsdropped! Please don't hurt me!" At that Will seemed hurt. Then he rushed over to my bedside and said,"Why would you think that I would _ever_ in a million years hurt you in anyway, shape, or form?" He asked/scolded as he wiped away my frightened tears. I answered him truthfully,"Because my step father always does." I felt really cowardly becuase I started to cry again. Then I looked Will in the eyes and saw that a fiery and rightoues anger well up in his eyes. I was almost scared of this look. Then he calmed back down and said that he had to make a call real quik and then he would be back. Then Will walked out of the room. I could just hear the muffled beaping noises of his phone as he dialed a number and then, apparently my stepfather answered the phone because my _real_ dad started to yell a whole bunch of words into the phone that I would never repeat and actually didn't even know existed. lets just say that he went on long enough that a tv channel would go bankrupt trying to bleep out all the words. I actually wished that I had some brain bleach to wash out the words from my memory. Eventually, my dad hung up and came back into the room and saw the look on my face and said what all parents say,"I'm sorry you had to hear all that." Then I did something that I didn't expect, I laughed. Will was surprised too. Then I said," Are you kidding! You raosted my step-father! That was awesome! I mean he was nice to me for the first five minutes of the new marriage of him and my mom and then, BOOM! He turns into a jerk of phenominal proportions." "I'm sorry I should have done something sooner." Will said miserably. Then I said,"No. If you had tried to do anything sooner I probably would've just hated you for watching but not doing. I had to mature more so that I could understand _why_." "Thank you, Chloe, for understanding." Then I answered with a smirk,"You're not that hard to understand." Will mad a mock face of hurt. "I'm not mysterious at all?" Then we both started to crack up. Then I got a sharp pain in my ribs. "Dangit. I forgot about my ribs being broken. That is so frustrating!" Will smirked and said,"Believe me. I know the feeling."

**Will's POV**

I helped Chloe back to the truck the next day and we headed back towards Hunter Ranch. But just before we got there I veered of onto the dirt road that led to my ranch. I heard Chloe take in a breath to say something but I held up my hand to forestall it. Then I said,"There's someone who would like to see you." Chloe got a puzzled look on her face until I brought her to the back of my ranch. Then we came to the pasture where I kept Buck along with the rest of the horses and her eyes lit up with excitement. She asked me to help her out of the truck and I happily obliged. When we got her out of the truck and into a spare wheelchair that I had she let out that peircing whistle of hers and then Iheard the galloping gate of one horse. When it finally came to a stop Buck was standing right in front of Chloe. He didn't even seem worried about me. Buck bent his neck down so that Chloe could scratch behind his ear just the way he liked and Chloe gave vent to a little chuckle. Buck shook his mane and snorted contentedly. When he finally lifted his head back up he bolted back towards the barn. I had left it open last night for the horses for fresh air. Buck went into the barn and made a turn towards the left, _towards the tack room._ Chloe wascalling Buck back but he didn't come. When Buck finally returned he had the lunge line in his mouth. Chloe had her jaw dropped. When buck stopped in front of Chloe,he dropped the lunge line in her lap and bent his head down so that she coul clip it on. I drew in a sharp breath. Never before had I seen a horse do that for a disabled rider or owner. Chloe smiled and hooked the lunge line onto Buck. Then she gave him a cue that apparently meant to move out away from her. Then she gave him another cue and he started to walk. Every few minutes she changed the gait to where itwas a little bit faster until it turned into an all out gallop. She gently pulled on the lunge line. Buck slowed back down to a slow walk and came back in. Chloe took the lunge line off and gave buck free rein. But unlike last time he just moved over to her right side and stayed there. Chloe looked puzzled and ym face must have been incredulous, because Chloe started to laugh a little. Then she grimaced slightly and grabbed at her midsection. Buck gently nuzzled her with his muzzle and it seemed that it realieved her pain. Then she reached up and pat the side of his neck. I was amazed at the connection that she had formed with this horse in three short hours.

Then suddenly Buck started to rear up and down Chloe tried to calm him down but he didn't calm down for at least five minutes. When Buck finally did calm down he was staring at something on the ground. Whe Chloe lookedat it she drew in a sharp breath. When I looked at what she was staring at I gasped. Right where Buck had been rearing and landing was a dead western diamond back rattlesnake. One of the single most deadly snakes in the U.S. Chloe looked into Buck's eys and seemed to silently thank Buck for saving her. I reached toward Buck and he didn't even flinch. When my hand touch his neck he quivered slightly but then quieted. I started to pat his neck. Then I whispered in his ear,"Thank You." Buck shook his head as if to say,"No problem." I smiled. I think we might actually get along. Then I said,"Come on Chloe, we need to get you home." Chloe sighed and said,'Fine. But you have to bring me back tomorrow." I smirked and said,"Deal."

About fifteen minutes later we arrived at the Hunter Ranch. After I got Chloe out of the truck and into the wheelchair, she said something that surprised me," Thanks, _dad._ See you tomorrow."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chloe's POV**

I woke up the next morning with the sun. I tried to get up thinking that everything that had happened was just a dream. Then a sharp pain fired up from my midsection. Then I remembered the broken ribs and sighed. I called out,"Mom!" But who came in wasn't who I expected. It was Will. He looked like he hadn't slept all night. I was surprised to see him, and apparently it showed on my face too, because he gave vent to a little chuckle. "I explained everything to your mother and so now I'm staying here to help with the ranch. When your mother told your step father that he looked terrified. It was hilarious!" he said. I smiled and said,"I would've paid to see that." "Anyway, hurry up and get dressed we're going to PT for your leg." he said. "OK. I'll be out in a minute." I said.

After about hafl an hour of struggling with getting dressed I got back in my wheelchair from being on bed. Then I managed to get the door to my room open and headed to the kitchen to get myself some breakfast. When I finally got to the kitchen, Will was already cooking up something that smelled really good. Will heard me roll into the kitchen and said,"I made your favorite. Roll Pancakes." Roll pankaces are like a sweet tasting tortilla that you put butter and syrup on like a pancake. I rubbed my hands together, or at least tried to since my left hand didn't work anymore. Then I said,"Mmmmm." Will laughed.

A few minutes later, my mom came down. When she saw me and the full extent of my injuries, she looked like she wanted to cry. I smiled to her and held out my arms for a hug. "What, I don't get my usual good morning hug just because I'm injured? Come on! What is this!" I was relieved when my mom laughed and hugged me carefully, being mindful of my ribs. Then my mom finally spoke,"I thought you were going to be in bed for weeks considering your injuries. But I guess we just can't keep you down." I grinned aand said,"Nope. You most certainly can't." Then both my mom and my dad burst out laughing. So much so Will almost burn the roll pancake that was in the pan. Then he managed to salvage the roll pancake and put it on my plate. I thanked Will and said,"So, Are we going to work with Buck on the lunge line again today?" Will answered,"Actually was thinking about trying my old sadlle on him for getting him used to feel of it, given your bond with him, I don't think it will be a problem." "Okay. So after PT we'll head over to Ranger Ranch and work with Buck." I said. Will looked at me and scratched the back of his head nervously and then said,"Actually I brought Buck over here to Hunter Ranch. Your mother wanted to see him and it would also be easier to work with him if he were here." I was pretty sure my jaw had just hit the floor because Will busted up laughing. I turned beet red and said,"What's so funny?" Will just pointed at my face as he gasped for breath while laughing.

After I finished eating my breakfast I rolled my wheelchair out onto the porch. I sighed. I wanted to be independent, not having to ask somebody else for help to get places. But I also didn't want to have anymore broken bones, which is exactly what would be the result if I tried to be more independent. So I just sat there enjoying the sunrise and the warm weather. Eventually will came out and joined me. After a few minutes silence he said,"We'd better get you over to the hospital for PT." I sighed,"Alright."

About an hour later, we arrived at the hospital. Since it was a pretty small town everyone knew everyone, so consequently when I walked in, all the people who knew me started to clap. I was knid of confused by this until miss brown came up and whispered in my ear,"The gods were with you, Chloe." Suddenly I understood why they were clapping. They were clapping to congratulate me on being up and about the day after the accident. I was surprised that I had the whole towns support. Then Will leaned down and whispered,"The whole town wanted to see you off to physical therapy. Apparently you've helped a lot of people. They felt it was time to return the favor." I was astounded. All I had done was help Miss. Brown out by helping her figure out what was wrong with her old pack horse, Sandy, since the vet wasn't an experton horses. And ? I had helped him find the old phone number for his daughter so that he could contact her. I had helped out the manager of the local H-E-B,**(A/N: H-E-B is a grocery chain unique to texas. I should know. I grew up there)**I think it was, restock the shelves one time when all the employees got the stomach bug. And the manager of Mccoy's needed some extra money to finish building his house so I gave him $500 of my college fund to finish it. The rest were really elderly people that I occasionally visited since their families couldn't. I gave them news of their families and played games with the elderly at the local nursing home. I couldn't get over the fact that the whole town had come to support me. When I finally decided to get a good look around the room, I noticed a banner above the doors that read,"Get well soon Chloe!" Then in parenthases it said,"And don't do that again. When we saw it on the news about all the women in the town fainted." I laughed softly at what it said in parenthases. No one but grouchy old Mr. Newman could have done that to the banner. As I looked around the room, amking a 180 with my head I noticed a bunch of other ballons and streamers hanging from the walls. Even the elderly people from the nursing home held a baloon in their hand or just smiled at me like I was a long lost daughter coming home.

About an hour later I came out and almost all the people that were here to greet me when I got here were still waiting for me to come out. In my PT session we had worked on my left wrist and now apparently the doctor had been wrong about it being permanently disabled because I could now use crutches and so I walked out on a pair of crutches. People who already knew that the doctor had said that my left wrist was going to be permanently disabled gasped and smiled. I gave vent to a little chuckle and then everyone started to clap. It started out slow but eventually grew til the applause was almost deafening. I smiled as I walked/hobbled out to the truck. As I got into the old beat-up truck I heard people calling out things like,"Good luck, Chloe!" and,"Get well soon!" there was even one that said,"Praise the gods for for your life, Chloe!" that I knew was Miss. Brown. When I got home and hobbled up the steps on my crutches my mom and step-father - who by the way looked as fearful as all-get-out when he saw Will- were waiting for me at the door. my mom gasped when she saw that I was no longer in a wheelchair and I just smiled. But I remembered what Miss. Brown had said as I was leaving the hospital,"_Praise the gods for your life, Chloe!"_ I was confused. I thought Miss. Brown was a christian. Since when did she believe in multiple gods? Since when did multiple gods even exist?

After a few months, I forgot about the Miss. Brown incedent, and the bill arrived for my PT. I was shocked. I would never be able to pay the bill off. Even if the whole family pitched in we wouldn't be able to pay for it. But as I kept reading and came to the bottom of the page for the grand total, I was surprised to find that where the grand total should have been was stamped in big letters that read,"PAID IN FULL." I gasped and then hobbld as fast as I could to the living room. Will was sitting wher he always sat on the couch watching on ecalloege football game or another. I took a second to roll my eyes as he sat there sipping a coke. Finally I said,"Dad did you have something to do with this?" He looked at me completely confused and said,"Do with what?" "The bill for my PT says paid in full. did you have something to do with that?" I asked again. He just sat there completely mistified,"No I din't and I know that niether one of the other adults did it either." Finally I decided to call the mayor of the town on his private phone because I remembered what Will had told me months ago when I started my PT._"They felt it was time to return the favor."_ And I knew that know one in town had enough money to pay off this bill by themselves. I also knew that you had to get a petition to have multiple put money on the same bill to have it payed in full. So when the phone rang for a third time on the other line a little girl that could only be the mayor's daughter answered and said,"Hello, Cassie speaking. How may I help you?" I decided to play along with her little game and said,"Yes, Cassie, I'd like to speak with your dad please. Tell him it's-" cassie suddenly cut me off my squeeling,"Chloe!" I laughed on the other line and said,"Yes. How are you today anyway? Feeling better after that nasty stomach bug?" "Yes much better thanks to you." I answered her,"No thanks to me. The true thanks should go to God." Cassie answered a little doubtfully,"Oookay. If you say so." I finally decided it was time to talk with her father now so I said," Ok, so can I talk to your dad now?" Cassie answered," No I'm sorry he's not here," Suddenly I heard Her dad's voice in the background say,"Cassie who are talking to on the phone?" I laughed and playfully scolded Cassie saying,"Caaaaaaasssie," Cassie suddenly said,"I know, I know, I shouldn't have lied I was just hoping to ive him some peace and quiet since it's father's day and all," I answered sympathetically,"It's OK. I understand, but I still need to talk to him." "Alright," I heard her cover the mouth peice as she yealled"Hey dad! Chloe's calling and wants talk to you." A few seconds later a deep male voice said," Hello?" I answered," Hi, mister mayor," The mayor interrupted saying,"Please call me Bob or Mr. meyer." "Alright , I was jsut wandering, did you recently sign a petition to have the town put a little of their money into a PT bill?" He stayed silent for a minute then said,"I do recall signing a similar petition to what you're describing. Why do you ask?" "Because you did, that was a petition for MY PT bill. Now it already says paid in full on it." Then the Mayor to laugh. I was so surprised I jumped a little. Then he said," Actually whether you choose to believe it or not everyone in town, all 305 of them, came together to pay for it all." I gasped. Everyone in town had come together to pay for _my_ PT. I hadn't realized that I was that popular in town. Then the Mayor continued,"Even little Cassie put in her savings, all five dollars and fifty cents of it." That really made my eyes water. How could I be this loved, by so many people, some of them I don't even know? I'd only helped all those people because I knew it was the right thing to do and I had the resources and the ability to do it. Then the Mayor said,"How about you come over for diner. Bring your mom and dad too, if you want to." I had two questions befor eI accepted the invitation to diner,"Two qestions before I accept, one, Which dad, my biological, or my step-father? And two, do you have a horse hitch?" The mayor laughed," I would like to meet your biological dad so bring him and if they don't want to kill each other, your mom. She's always such a nice guest to have over. And 'Do we have horse hitch?' Of course we do! Nobody in this town doesn't. Anyway, why do you ask? I thought your herding horses hated you." I answered with a smirk clearly in my voice,"Oh, I'm not talking about the herding horses," See, Will had been working with Buck while I was recovering and had gotten him saddle trained, and now that I could walk without crutches and I didn't have a cast on my leg anymore, the doctor OKed it for me to ride and get back to helping out on the ranch. So I was going to ride Buck over to the Mayor's house and show him to them. The mayor said over the phone,"Chloe, what've you got up your sleeve?" I told him,"You'll see when I get there tonight. I gotta go, Bye."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chloe's POV(next day)**

I ran back into the livingroom and explained what happened and Will was amazed at the fact that the whole town had put in some of their savings in to pay the bill. I also let him know that he would have to clean himself up for diner tonight. He whined like a little kid when I told him that he also have to get a decent haircut and _not_ use his hunting knife for shaving. I laughed and he just glared which made me laugh even harder. But unfortunatley my ribs were not quite fully healed so I got some pain in my mid section. Of course, Will just said that it served me right to laugh that hard with damaged ribs. But finally draged himself up off the couch and went back to town to get a haircut. Then I raced up to tell my mom that we were going to have diner at the Mayor's house. When I got there the door was closed, so I knocked on the door three times and called,"Mom?" Then my mom answered back," Yes, Chloe?" Then I asked,"May I come in?" My mom answered back through the door," Yes, you may." I stepped in and saw that she was already looking at different formal outfits. I was confused by this until my mom said," I will admit it, I eavsdropped on conversation on the phone. I also eavsdropped on your conversation with your father after the fact." My mom had to hold back a smile at my jaw dropping to the floor. I had never known my mom to eavsdrop on anything or anyones conversation's. My mom was still cofused by the question that I had asked the mayor about the horse hitch so I had to explainit to mom. I ressured her that Buck was completly tame and that he wouldn't hurt a fly now. Then i went to my room and searched in my closet for a nice shirt and a good, _clean_, nondirt covered pair of jeans to wear. I found a nice, satin, turquoise, short sleeve shirt that had ruffles down the middle of the shirt and little buttons that looked like pearls. Unfortunaly I couldn't find a single pair of clean and decent jeans that weren't ripped or faded in some way. But right as I gave up on the search for a decent pair of pants, my dad came home from getting his unwanted haircut and he had apparently stopped at a western wear store to find some clothes for tonight. So, anyway he just came home and he rushed up the stairs, Then he knocked on my door and said,"Chloe, can I come in?" " Sure, just be careful where you step there's some stuff in here that I would like to give to Cassie since it's too small for me." My dad came in holding up a pair of nice black bull hide boots in my size and a bag that had some other stuff in it. "I saw these at the store and thought of you so I bought them. Here try them on and see if they fit." "OK dad. I f you'l just give me a minute to change." I answered. He handed me the boots and tossed the bag to me on the way out. what I found in the bag was a really nice lite felt brand black cowboy hat, and a nice pair of deep navy blue, almost black, jeans. I said a silent prayer of thanks to God and put them on. They fit perfect in every aspect. I then put on my turqouise shirt and the boots. Last of all I put the hat on. It had a band of leather around it. Inset in the leather were three oval shaped peices of turquoise. One larger one in the middle and one smaller one on either side.

**Will's POV**

After I got my haircut I realized that I didn't have anything nice to wear for diner tonight. I saw a Billy's western wear store and walked in. After looking around, I found a nice flannel shirt and a decent pair of pants. When I decided to browse just a little I found a pair of women's deep navy blue jeans, and as soon as I looked at them I thought about Chloe. I knew that she was get-down-in-the-dirt-and-do-it-yourself kind of girl, so I knew that she wouldn't have a decent pair of pants to wear to diner tonight. But in order to make sure that the size that I picked would fit I needed to call her mother to find out what size of pants Chloe wore. I called Chloe's mom and asked. She told me Chloe wore a size 8 in womens. I thanked her and hung up. I found one last pair of size 8's and picked them up. I looked around and saw a black lite felt brand hat and picked that up for her too. Eventually I went back to looking for boots for me but thanks to some not-so-smart restocker they placed a pair of womens black bull hide boots in the mens section. I knew from seeing Chloe's muddy tennis shoes that she wore size nines so I looked at the size and sure enough they were size nines. I decided to get those too. So I went up to the cash register and made my purchase. When I got back to the Hunter Ranch I bounded up the steps and gave Chloe the boots,pants, and hat. Then left to saddle Buck with my special show saddle and then change. After I got Buck saddled, I went inside and got changed. When I came out Chloe was waiting. She said,"Soooo, what do you think?" as she made a slow 360 degree turn. Apparently, she already had a dress shirt, and a black leather jacket, but with the pants, boots, and hat she had a complete image. The outfit made her look older and more mature. She had added a turqouise teardrop necklace with matching earrings to the outfit which added to the maturity look. Her black hair was neatly brushed, which by the way, was a rarity. Apparently I had allowed my jaw to drop in all of this because she suddenly looked sheepish and said,"I'll go take it off." I quickly said,"No! You look great. By the way, does the mayor have any other children besides Cassie?" Her eyes lit up with the question so I knew she was trying to inpress someone besides the mayor. She answered,"Yeah, he has two sons that are my age and furturnal twins. Their name are Chase and Clay. Clay is really anti-social. Chase on the other hand is talkitive and really nice. When I was at school one time he defended me when I was getting beat up by the school bullies and together we were able to get away with only a few minor scrapes and bruises while the bullies weren't quite so well off. Chase is also ve-" "Okay, okay, I get it you like Chase, but you're starting to ramble off at the mouth." Chloe blushed crimson color of red when I said she liked him and I thought,_"Yep. That's who she's trying to impress."_ Then second later she shrieked in a note I didn't know she could," I DO NOT LIKE CHASE! Why does everybody think that I like him?" I decided to give just a few examples instead of the whole list,"Well let's see, you blush at the mere mention of his name, you get all fancied up in all this get-up that I didn't even know you had if you're about to go over to his house, you actually brushed your hair, and you want to show Buck off over there." Chloe turned even brighter red, hung her head and said,"For once someone gives me solid proof," She looked up at me and said,"Is it really that noticable?" I sighed inwardly, she has really grown up in just the few months that I've known her. Then I looked at her with mock pity,"I'm afraid it is my dear. There isn't much more I can do for your condition. I've already done all I can." At that we both cracked up. Chloe had to restrian herself from laughing the way she wanted to because of her ribs.

**Chloe's POV**

After about another hour of talking with my dad, I had to finish getting ready by, for only the tenth time in my entire life, putting make-up on because that was a must if I was going over to the mayor's house for diner I had to wear it. I hated the stuff but I had to do it. My mom always insisted until my will crumbled. I was still embarrassed at how obvious it was that I liked Chase but I was glad that he didn't go all like _young lady you are to young to like anyone like that_. Like an over protective dad. About a half hour later my mom was finally ready in a simple but elegant silver evening gown. She stuck to neutral colors for her make-up (Thank you, universe) instead of her usual gaudy gold or silver make-up. I heard a gasp as my mom came all the way down stairs. When I turned to see who had gasped, it was non other than Will. His jaw was pretty much on the floor. I had to supress a laugh at the look on his face. I walked over and whispered,"You may want to pick your jaw up off the floor. If you want to impress my mom now's your chance. complement her on her appearance." Will barely nodded and then said in a normal voice,"I already saddled Buck for you. Go have fun. We'll be along in a little while." I said thank you then went back up to my room to get my leather jacket. After that I went to go get Buck out of the pasture. I got to the pasture and let out my whistle. Buck came galloping up to the gate. He already had his saddle and reins on him. I noticed that the saddle seemed brand new, it was all black leather with silver leaf carvings in it and it looked extremly expensive. I opened the gate and was about to mount when I heard running footsteps. When I looked up Will was running towards me. I stepped down from the stirrup and walked up to him. I waited for him to catch his breath and then I said," What is it, dad?" Will answered,"I forgot to tell you that before you get on him for the first time, you have to whisper in his ear,'May I?' I trained him that way so he can't be stolen." I asnwered,"Alrighty. Thank you for letting me know. I don't want anymore broken bones." Will smiled and walked away a little ways to give me room to warm him up and then gallop off. When I had finished warming him up I turned towards the gate thinking that Will would have already opened it. I was already galloping by the time realized it wasn't opened. I was to close to pull on the reins so I urged buck to greater pace. I heard Will shout a warning but I let Buck have his head. I felt him bunch his muscles and then he soared over the six foot fence. Once all four of his hooves touched the ground i pulled on the reins to bring him to a stop. I looked back and realized that Buck had just cleared what is referred to in horse jumping as Beecher's Brook. It is the tallesst jump in the Grand National horse jumping race. Once I got over my shock I waved at Will and galloped off towards the mayor's house.

When I got to the Mayor's house the entire family was waiting, wanting to see what the surprise was. When I slowed Buck down to a walk and then ultimately to a stop everyone's jaw dropped. Whether it be from my appearance or from the horse I wasn't sure, but I just stepped down from the saddle, wincing a little as I did so becuase my leg was still somewhat tender, walked up to everyone and said,"Hi, everybody. What're you all staring at?" They pointed behind me and as I turned around I felt hot breath on my neck. I turned around and was face to face with Buck. I smiled,"Good boy,Buck." I rubbed his muzzle and then gave him the hand signal for free. He wandered off to graze and I turned around to face the mayor and his family. Then I said,"Oh. Sorry that's Buck. My biological dad gave him to me as a working horse and a pleasure horse. So I ride him pretty much everywhere." Everyone started to congratulate me on a horse that didn't hate me and I laughed. Chase was the only one who didn't say anything. He just kind of stood there gapping at me. Then I remembered the clothes that I had packed into the saddle pack and then let out a peircing whistle. Buck trotted over and I praised him. Then I walked over to his side and got the saddle bags. I called Cassie over,"Hey, Cassie! Can you come here for a sec?" When she got over to where I was, she immediatly saw the saddle bag and seemed to know that the items inside were for her. Then I said,"I brought some more of my old clothes. We'll make a cowgirl of you yet." I said playfully as I messed up her hair. She straightened her hair up as best she could and then said,'Can I see them now? Please?" She gave me her best puppy dog face and I just couldn't refuse. I pulled out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt to start with, just enough to satisfy little Cassie.

After I sent Buck away to graze again, I sent Cassie inside to hide so that I could try to find her. The only ones left outside were me and Chase. Chase was still gaping at me. As I walked past I teased him by whispering in his ear,"You okay Chase? You seem a little stunned that I actually clean up well." Then I walked towards the door slowly so that he could catch up. He seemed to recover himself a little and he got the door for me. I said,"Thank you, Chase." Chase responded,"You're welcome, Chloe." Was it just my imagination or did his voice seem to change pitch when he said my name? I looked over and noticed that he was blushing slightly. I smiled and said,"You coming or not?" Chase scrambled inside after me. A few minutes later Will and my mom arrived in his beat-up truck. We had a great diner. My parents decided to take their leave early and as my dad left he winked at me and my mom smiled and nodded almost imperceptibely. I was sure that I was blushing bright red. After my parents left the games were broken out. We played games like Twister and Monopoly. A few hours later I could tell everybody was getting tired so I decided to take my leave They all begged me to spend the night but I had bills, homework, and the ever present chores to catch up on. I headed towards the door and walked out. Once I was outside I whistled for Buck and he came trotting over. I grabbed my black leather jacket off my saddle and put it on. Then I put my hat on and got on Buck. Just as I was wheeling Buck around towards the Hunter Ranch I heard the screen door slam. I turned around and running to catch me before I left was Chase. I waited a second to let Chase to catch his breath then I asked,"Did I forget something?" Chase said,"Yeah, you forgot to give me a kiss goodnight and I didn't get to say good-bye because I was putting the twister up." I I chuckled and then cut him off by holding up my hand and saying,"Chase, you are a really bad liar. What is your real reason for running out here like that?" Chase sighed in defeat "I wanted to ask you if you wanted to catch a movie this weekend. Maybe saturday about 5:00?" I winced and said,"I sorry Chase, but I still have a lot of make-up work and chores to do since you know, the accident." Chase seemed to wince at the memory too. Almost like he'd seen me unconcious or something. I had thought that I hadn't had any visitors when I was unconcious. At least that's what the doctor had said. But then I remembered the shadow that had been over me when I was just barely coherent. i had thought it had been the doctor but now I wasn't sure. Then I realized that I had about a half hour of free time available for anything."But you could come over to my house for about a half hour. Return the favor of diner and games." I said the last part with a smile. Then I wheeled Buck around and jumped the fence of their yard as I galloped off


	6. Chapter 6

**Chase's POV**

My family and I waited for Chloe and her family outside of the house. We had only been outside for about three minutes when we heard hooves pounding the ground. a few seconds later a figure on a horse apeared on the horizon. They slowed down to a trot then a canter. Eventually they slowed down to a walk and when I could make out clear features I realized it was Chloe riding a horse. I didn't know who it belonged to becuase it wasn't one of her ranching horses and anyhow they both hated her. Plus those horses were old. from the looks of this one he was only about two years old. When Chloe came into clear view she was wearing a black leather jacket over a silkish looking ruffle shirt along with a black hat with turquoise stones on it. She had on some navy almost black boot cut jeans and black bull hide boots. her hair was slightly disshevled from the ride but it was still a lot neater than usual. And to top it all of her saddle was pitch black with silver leaf detailing. It looked extremely expensive. In other words she looked like a million dollars. After a second she stepped down from the saddle wincing slightly as she did so. Probably because her leg was still bothering her. Then she just walked up to us trying to hide a smile but not very successfully and said,"Hi, everybody. What're you all staring at?" We all just pointed behind her and she smiled as turned around. I always found that smile kinda cute. Then when she came face to face with the massive horse she just rubbed his muzzle and said,"Good boy, Buck." Then she seemed to give him a hand signal and he wandered off with intent to graze. Then Chloe seemed to notice that we were still staring so she said,"Oh, sorry. That's Buck. My biological dad gave him to me as a working horse and as a pleasure horse. So I ride him pretty much everywhere." Finally everyone but me snapped out their trance and started to congratulate her on a horse that didn't hate her. She laughed at the way they congratulated her. I smiled. I thought that her laugh was probably the most amazing sound you will every hear. Then she seemed to remember something and let out the most peircing whistle I had ever heard. Buck trotted over to her and she praised him. I was amazed at how well she handled this massive horse that could trample her in an instant, without any fear what so ever. She went over to her saddle bag and untied it from the saddle. She then called,"Hey, Cassie! Can you come here a sec?" I watched as little Cassie came over by Chloe and her eyes seemed to light up at the sight of the saddle bag. Then Chloe said," I brought some more of my old clothes. We'll make a cowgirl of you yet." She said as she playfully messed up Cassie's hair. Funny, Chloe was the only one she tolerrated to do that. Cassie straightened her hair up and then said,"Can I see them now? Please?" She showed Chloe her best pouty face and Chloe brought out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I knew it would satisfy Cassie for now.

After Chloe sent Buck out to graze she told Cassie to go and hide so that Chloe could try to find her. The only ones left outside after that were me and Chloe. Apparently I was still staring with my jaw dropped because as she walked past she whispered teasingly,"You okay Chase? You seem a little stunned that I actually clean up well." Then she kept walking towards the door much slower. I recoverd myself a little and got the door for her. She did the polite thing and said,"Thank you, Chase." I responded with my voice craking on her name,"You're welcome,Chloe." Chloe glanced over when she heard my voice crack. I was absolutly certain that I was blushing to some extent. Chloe smiled and said,"You coming or not?" I scrambled inside after her._ Dang it! Why am I always so clumsy around her? _And the tiny little voice in my head said,"_because you like her,duh!_"

A little while after that her parents arrived and we had diner. We had some small talk around the table but the main thing for my sibling was teasing me about Chloe. Of course Chloe sat with her parent out of respect and consequently they were at the opposite end of the table as us. I was kind of sad that she didn't sit with us at the end of the table, but also glad because this way she couldn't hear all of the teasing about me actually _like_ liking her. After about an hour Chloe's parents took their leave. It was funny though becuase as Chloe's dad left he winked at Chloe and her mom just nodded almost imperceptably. For some reason, Chloe turned a deep shade of crimson and I wondered what kind of understanding had just past between them. After Chloe's parents took their leave we broke out the Twister and Monopoly. A few hours later everyone was getting tired and Chloe seemed to pick up on this. That was another thing I liked about her. She was always so perceptive. Everyone begged her to stay the night but she explained that she had bills to pay. Everyone was already aware of her situation with having to pay the bill's herself. She also explained that she had a lot of of homework and chores to get caught up on since she had been incapcitated. Then she said goodnight to everyone and headed out the door. My dad was the first to break the silence,"Well? Why don't you just go ask her to the movies this weekend?" I looked at my dad and asked,"That obvious?" My dad just nodded and said,"Well gat after her then!" I leaped off the couch and ran for the door. I made it outside just as she was wheeling Buck back towards her ranch. Chloe turned around when she heard the door slam. When I caught up to her she let me catch my breath before asking,"Did I forget something?" I managed to get out,"Yeah, you forgot to give me a goodnight kiss and I didn't get to say good-bye because I was putting the Twister up." Chloe chuckled and then held up her hand to stop me from saying anything else. Then she said,"Chase, you are a really bad liar. What is your real reason for running out here like that?" In my head I thought,"_Dang she's good!"_ On the ouside I just sighed in defeat and said,"I wanted to ask you if you wanted to catch a movie this weekend. Maybe saturday about 5:00?" Chloe winced a little and said,"I'm sorry Chase, but I still have a lot of make-up work and chores to do since you know, the accident." I winced at that memory. I hated seeing her like that, unconcious in the hospital bed. I had asked the doctor not to tell her that I had visited and I left after about an hour. Chloe seemed to think about something and then said,"But you could come over to my house for about half an hour. Return the favor of diner and games." She smiled at the last,return the favor, bit. Then she wheeled Buck back towards her ranch. As she headed straight for the fence she soared over it easily. As she sped away into the distance I thought how good she looked tonight and how good she looked in that leather jacket. Then I went back to the house and to bed. Everyone watched me as I went to bed in a trance. Clay and Cassie snickered and said,"She must have kissed him." I decided to just let them think that.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chloe's POV**

As I galloped home I thought about what just happened. I had to get the house cleaned up! I urged Buck to new speeds. I had to get home and tell mom and dad. When I got there I saw something that surprised me. There was a note on the fridge that read as follows,"Dear Chloe,

Will and I went out to diner for an intimate night. We intend to try to start a new relationship with each other. I hope that is all right with you. We will probably be back by 10:00 so don't stay up and wait for us. I give you permission to have a night on the town if you like. If you want you can even invite Chase to go for a movie. I got annoyed at that part. I know you're annoyed now but still it's a genuine suggestion. Anyway have fun. don't spend over twenty dollars. Love you, Mom and Will

I stuffed the note in my pocket, then I grabbed the phone and called the mayor's house. Little Cassie answered,"Hello, Meyer residence." I answered,"Hi Cassie. Can I talk to your brother Chase please?" "Sure thing Chloe." A few seconds silence and then I was greeted by the groggy voice of Chase,"Hello?" My face burned a little just hearing his voice,"Yeah, hey Chase it's me, Chloe." that seemed to snap him awake,'Chloe? What's up?" "My parents decided to have a night on the town tonight after they left and they said that I could go to the movies with you as long as I didn't spend over twenty dollars. So you up to seeing War Horse?" Chase's voice held new energy,"You're on." "Alright see you in five minutes. War horse shows in fifteen and it takes ten minutes from your house to the theatre. See you in five. bye" "bye" CLICK. I decided to go and straighten up my hair and then I put my leather jacket and my felt hat on then went outside. I whistled for Buck and he came right to the porch. I jumped in the saddle and we were off.

About five minutes later I got to Chase's house. he was waiting on the porch in his duster and brown lite felt hat. I told him to hurry up and get down off the porch. He jumped off the porch and bounded over. I reached down my left hand, which was now full strength again, and Chase grabbed it. I hefted him up onto Buck and Chase gave vent to a little yelp at my strength. Then we galloped off towards the theatre. We got there on time and hitched Buck to the horse hitch. Then we walked into the theatre got two tickets, two cokes, and one huge bucket of popcorn. We watched the movie and then went back to Chase's house. When we got to his house I only had enough time to say good bye. So there we were. "Well I had fun tonight." I said. "I did, too." said Chase. "Well, see you tomorrow then." I said. I turned back towards Buck to mount him but something stopped me. I turned around and walked back back towards Chase and-don't ask me why I did it because I won't know-kissed him on the cheek and said,"Goodnight, Chase." Then I walked Back to Buck, mounted him and rode back towards the ranch full speed. When I got back to my house there were two very unhappy adults waiting for me. They were both in their pajama's and looked really tired. I was confused by their faces since they were the ones who had said that I could have a night on the town. Then I looked at the writing on the note again. Dang it! how could I have been so stupid? I was my step dad's writing on it. I was so used to seeing it that I didn't give it a second thought. I decided to say,"Hi mom, hi dad." Then my dad was the first one to speak up,"Where have you been Chloe Elane Smith?" I flinched as he used my full name. No one had used my full name in a long time. Then I decided to just come out and say it," Alright I will start at the begining. When I got home from Chase's house, you guys were no where to be seen so I checked to fridge door for a note," I pulled the note out of my pocket and handed it to them,"I was so used to my step father's writing that I didn't even give it a second thought and plus I had never seen Will's penmanship so I assumed that that was what it looked like. So yeah Chase and I went to the movie's that's all I swear that we just finished the movie and I got home as soon as I could." They both looked at each other. My dad's face contorted into a face of extreme anger and my mom begging my dad with her eyes not to beat up my step- father for messing with me. Then my mom said,"It's alright we understand. just be more careful about looking to see who's penmanship wrote the note." I looked down and said,"Yes, ma'am." Then

I headed up to my room. I laid down on my bed and sighed. aside from parents being slightly angry this had probably been the best night of my _life_. I mean come on I had just kissed Chase, granted it had been on the cheek but still. Then I ended up falling asleep.

When I woke up I realized that I was still in my dress outfit. I quickly changed into my work clothes and hung up my nice "date" clothes in a small section of my closet that I never put anything in. I put on my old straw blue hat and went down stairs. When I went down stairs Will was making roll pancakes again. Will apparently heard me come down stairs and said,"To tired, or was it happy, to change into pajamas?" I heard the jibe in his voice when he said,"happy" and I said,"Would you please STOP teasing me about that!" Will held his up in surrender then said,'I heard you kissed Chase last night," I gasped how did he find out? Then I actually said,"How did you know?" I narrowed my eyes at him playfully and he said with a smile,"I have my sources," he wiggled his eyebrows and it made me laugh. he laughed too. Then he said,"Hot roll pancake ready for a plate," I quickly grabbed a plate and said,"Plate has been preped for pancake." We both laughed and my dad put the pancake onto the plat and then got all serious again. Then he said,"I noticed you didn't deny it." I got annoyed and said,"It was only on the cheek! Sheesh dad!" Will just chuckled as he poured more batter into the pan. I quickly ate and brushed my teeth. Then I headed out to put Buck's old saddle on him. I got him saddled and went to work. The week continued like this until saturday when I had planned a kind of date with Chase.

I asked my parents to help me pick up around the house until by three o'clock we had everything ready. That gave me 2 hours to just sit around and watch the game with my dad. The texas longhorns lost to the mizzou tiger 5-3. I was angry at the players every time there was fumble I yelled at the screen. I know, I know, that sounds like something a teenage guy would do. But hey, I was a tomboy.

An hour passed and then I picked up a little in my room. Then I went to go put my dress shirt and pants on. I then put my boots on. I figured Chase and I could take a ride around the thirty-five acre ranch. I went to go saddle Buck back up in his fancy black saddle. I liked it because of the simple yet intracate silver detailing. I brushed out my short, silky black hair and then put it into a ponytail. I decided I'd wear my longhorns baseball cap instead. Besides that's what I wore when I was working most of the time anyway. I looked at my watch. 4:55. I went back over to Buck and mounted up. I walked him up to the house and told Will to tell Chase I was up on the plateau. Will just nodded as I galloped off towards the plateau. As I sat there taking in the beautiful natural scenery of the plateau I heard galloping hooves behind me. When I looked up it was Chase. I smiled broadly at him. He returned the smile and urged his horse to even greater speeds. But before he got to me I saw something slither across his path that made me shiver. Instantly I knew what it was. I gave a hand signal to Chase that clearly meant to stop and not move. I galloped over to him. I always carried a 9mm with me for self defense and for cases like this that had to do with deadly, mean, and violent diamond backs. When I finally caught up with him. I stopped dead. The rattler was fifteen feet long, easy. It's fangs were as long as a large pocketknife. I pulled out my 9mil. It seemed like Chase understood and covered his ears. I cocked the gun and fired. Buck startled a little from the sound but not enough to make me miss. Apparently Will had accustomed Buck to the sound as well. When I dismounted and examined the snake closer, it was fifteen and half feet long. It's head was the size of a baseball. Then I got out my pocket knife and tried to use my steel blade. For some reason it just didn't cut the scales. I tried the brnze blade although I was doubtful that it would work. This time it slice through the scales like butter. I manages cut it's head off. After that I held up the roof of it's mouth to reveal fangs as long as my blade. I gasped. Chase would be dead now if I hadn't stopped him when I did. He would still probably be dead if I hadn't shot it. Chase seemed to realize this becuase when I looked up his mouth was agape and there seemed to be a look of awe and respect in his eyes. I just nodded gravely and went back to examining to dead snake. The body twitched a little and I'll admit it startled me a bit. I realized I still had my 9mm out of my saddle bag and said,"I hoped you wouldn't have to see this." Then shoved the 9mm back in the false bottom of my right saddle bag. Chase didn't say anything for a minute and then he said,'I'm glad I did though. Now I know not to make you mad and that we both have something for protection. You actually have twice the protection," as he nodded toward my pocket knife. I responded with a sheepish smile. Then I said,"I better take this back to the house and show it to them. They're going to want to see this." I quickly wrapped up the head and coiled up the body. I put the body in my left saddle bag and I put the head in the right one. Finally I remounted Buck and said,"Let's go." Then I galloped back towards the house not waiting to see if Chase was following me or not.

**A/N: The rest of the stor will be chloe's point of view. After a while i will change pov's. until then enjoy.**


	8. Family issues

I took not five minutes for us to reach the house with the horses galloping. When I got there I jumped off Buck before he was even fully stopped. He was trained to stop if the weight was suddenly gone off his back so he stayed where he was. I walked over and grabbed the saddle bag. Then I walked inside. I motioned for Chase to follow me and he ran after me.

I walked into the living room and Will was still there. I walked up to him and said,"Dad we need to be carrying 9mils everywhere we go on the ranch now." Will looked startled at my blunt statment. Then I said,"Chase was almost killed by a fifteen and a half foot rattler." Wil then said,"Well why didn't you kill it?" Then I said,"Oh but I did," I took my saddle bag off my shoulder and brought out the length of reptilian body. Will gasped. Apparently he hadn't believed the whole fifteen and a half feet long thing. But then I brought out the head. I held up it's fangs with my pocket knife-which was a gift from my brother. He always gave me bronze bladed knives-for Will to see and then he said,"How did you kill this thing?" I answered a bit shakily,"I shot it." Will raised both eyebrows for once and said,"You are definantly a girl of many talents. You can ride, you manage a ranch mostly by yourself, you can shoot, you know how to handle a knife, and apparently all the boys at your school like you." At the last comment my jaw dropped and Chase shouted,"What!" I turned abruplty and stared at Chase. I had never known Chase to be one to raise his voice. But when I looked in his eyes there was a jealous fire in his eyes. I looked into his eyes and he sofented a little. Then I said,"Anyway, back to the matter at hand. no pun intended." I said the last bit as an after thought becuase Will was still holding the body of the snake. Then I continued," We all need to keep ourselves well armed with 9mils and hunting or pocket knives. If we see another thing like this," I said pointing my new larger hunting knife at it-also a gift from my brother-"we need to shoot it first. Probably had something like a five foot strike length, then we cut it's head off just for good measure. I believe we all know how to hold the head so we can't be bitten. So you get the point. Chase I'll ride back with you to your house to make sure you get there safely. Will you go gather the two spare 9mils and grab a pocket knife for my mom, preferably one with a bronze blade. Steel seems to not work on these at all which is definantly unusual, but we'll talk about that later." Then I said one last thing with a smile to lighten the mood,"Move out!" We all laughed tensely and then left.

I told Chase to wait for me for just a minute while I gather my hunting knife thigh shieth. I bounded up the stairs and grabbed it. then I strapped it to my thigh. I came back down and Chase was still waiting. Then he said with a smile,"Thirty-eight seconds, not bad. Could use some improvement though." I playfully punched him in the arm and then said,"Shut up." Then I walked past him to Buck. I had changed into a regular old work tee and some dust covered jeans. I was still wearing my cap so that I wouldn't be blinded by the sun. After a second I looked back to see that Chase was still staring finally I said,"You coming or what? We can't aford to be on the ground for to much of an extended period of time. Given the number of snakes that giant could have had by now. It looked like it could have been alive since reagan was president which was before I was even born. I'm going to get word out to the town about the snake. Since this place is so small It's offspring could be anywhere." Chase nodded grimly. Then he mounted his horse. I waited until he was situated then I spurred Buck into a full out gallop.

About three minutes later we got to his house. I explained the situation to them and they went to get the extra 9mils out from underneath the bed in the gun drawer and to go get some pocket knives. Little Cassie knew how to use a gun too. She had to if she was going to be able to survive on her own. They gave her the miniature pistol. It fit her hand perfectly, and don't get me wrong, I was a little uncomfortable with her having a gun at her side and a pocket knife in her little pocket. But I knew it was neccesary. It was the only way we were going to get through this without having one less citizen of Derby, Texas. I also informed them of the strange happening that steel didn't work on them. Luckily, I collect greek style knives and swords. I passed some of them out. Chase along with the rest of his family looked pretty skeptical. I sighed and said,"Only bronze works on them and even more so the bronze used in these knives and swords. Do whatever you have to do to make them what you're accustomed to. make them into hunting and pocket knives I don't care just keep each other safe and under no circumstances is anyone to go outside without someone else." they nodded grimly. Even little Cassie seemed five years older with her grim look of determination. Finally I said,"I have to go. I need to let everyone else know." I was heading for the door but Chase stopped me,'You shouldn't go out there alone. I want to come with you." I smiled sadly,"I need you here Chase. You're the best marksman I know. You need to stay here and protect your family as best you can. I'm also going to the hospital to get at least one nurse and some anti-venom. I have a feeling we'll be needing some soon. Oh and one other thing Chase, good luck. If we make it through this we'll go out to eat. No if's, and's, or but's." Chase was about to protest but I held up a finger and said,"What did I just say," Chase rolled his eyes and said,"No if's, and's, or but's." "Good that means you actually listened. Now I have to go," Then I remembered something else,"The town must have some kind of comunication grid besides the phones like a ton of extra cell phones or something." I looked at the mayor and he said,"We have some old walkie talkie's in the basement. I'll go get them." A few seconds later he came back with them. I grabbed one and handed them out. I told them," Tune them to chanel two and don't change it. we need to maintain constant contact." They all nodded and I finally headed out the door with a saddle bag full of walkie talkie's.

Next I headed over to Mr. Newman's house. I knocked and rang the doorbell frantickaly. Finally I heard him say,'Alright, alright, I'm coming." I smiled a little, same old grouch. Then I said," Hello it's Chloe." At that he threw the door open,'Hello Chloe! I already heard about the whole snake incident. I have a 9mil in my dresser drawer and a hunting knife at my side," he said as he patted his hunting knife sheath. I then said,' There's one more thing, we need to maintain contact so hear's a walkie talkie it's already tuned in to chanel two. don't change the chanel even if you want to. This is the most dangerous situation that I've seen and trust me I've seen my fair share of them." Mr newman nodded and I walked back out to Buck.

The same conversation happened with the rest of the town. Finally I got back to the house to find someone else waiting for me besides all of my parents. It almost made me want drop everything and just hug him but I knew I couldn't. It wouldn't be mature plus there was a lot to worry about at the moment. Eventually, I couldn't stand it any more and hugged him anyway. My brother was home. And before Christmas. After a second he said,"hey sis what up?" I looked up, glaring at him for calling me sis yet smiling and laughed. I had tears in my eyes. It had been four years since I had seen him. I missed him a lot. Then i said,' Oh nothing much just giant rattlesnakes running loose all over the town. What about you Will? You weren't supposed to be back til christmas." He laughed and then got serious. "I heard you were in trouble here so I finished the rest of my classes early and came down here. And anyway I lied about my name to you. The only one who knew my real name was mom, well actually more like step-mom. My mom, well actually our mom, lives in New York. We were both adopted. You were born six years after me and our birth mother said that she only wanted boys so when you came along she wanted to give you up. I wasn't going to let you grow up like that alone, in the system, so I told my mom that if she was getting rid of you then I would go with you. She eventually gave in and got rid of us both. I geuss she wanted all boys more than to be greatful for the children she had. I've only ever meet our dad about three times, but the dad you found down here isn't your real birth father either." I held up my hands like I was calling a time out and said,"Whoa, whoa, wait a sec. You're saying that the parents that I've grown up with aren't my real parents at all but that I' m adopted? and that my real mom live in New York?" My brother winced. I just called him brother because I don't know his actual name anymore. Finally he answered and said,'Yeah that's what I'm saying." I couldn't believe it but instead I just decided to change the subject and said,' So what's your real name and is Chloe even my real name?" My brother nodded like he understood why I had changed the subject and then said,"My real name is Percy. I don't know why mom named me that but your real name is really Chloe." I looked at my adoptive mother and realized that that was why I had never felt quite truly comfortable with her. Plus we really don't look that much a like except for green eyes. Finally I just said,"Whatever. I have too much to worry about right now as it is. Back to the matter at hand. We have some monster rattlers to take care of so if you'll excuse me I need to get in touch with the town."

I walked outside on the porch and time seemed to slow down. I dodged the strike of a fourteen foot rattler and pulled my 9mil out. Whoa, how did I do that? I didn't have time to think anything more than that because the snake tried to strike again. I cocked the gun and fired. The next instant the big snake was dead I got my knee on it's back in a crushing blow just in case as I severed it's head from it's body. When I came back in I had snake blood splattered on my t shirt and I was holding the head. I looked at them and said,"It's getting worse." I heard some screaming and static on my walkie talkie and then heard clearly,'Chloe this is Chase. We've got three fourteen foot rattlers just outside the house. Hurry up and get your butt out here! We could use your help." I talked back over the walkie talkie,"I'll be there in two. I'm bringing my brother he's the best to bring." Chase just said,'Roger that. see you then. and bring some of that antivenom." Then I turned to Percy and said in a steely voice,"Let's go. We can talk more about _family_ issues after this is over." Then I ran out the door and mounted up. Apparently Percy had ridden a horse over here. Percy ran following and jumped on his horse. There was still something about that horse that I found odd. Like it didn't like having to stay on the ground, but I didn't dwell on that. Instead I just charged forward wordlessly. Percy followed me. Once the mayors house was in sight I slowed down to a cautious walk. Buck seemed to pick-up on my uneasiness becuase he was shying at the slightest noise. Almost all of Bucks wildness was back. I was surprised he hadn't bucked me off yet. After just three minutes I spotted the first one. I signaled to Percy to stop dead in his tracks. Then I slowly drew my gun and cocked it. I shot the snake but did not get off my horse. That was probably the smartest decision of my life. I knew that there were still two other snakes but I had no idea that they would try hunting in packs. Suddenly I heard a gun fire twice and I looked behind me to see Percy's gun smoking. I looked down and there were two rattlers falling dead to the ground. Finally I got off my horse and stared awestruck at Percy. He cleared his throat loudly and nodded at the dead snakes. I finally snapped back to reality and went over to the snake that I had killed. I took my hunting knife from it's sheath and cut off the head. After a minute I realized something...my entire collection of bronze weapons came from Percy. After I finished with my snake I walked over to Percy and said,"You knew something like this might happen, didn't you?" Percy just shrugged and said,"I didn't know what would happen. All I knew was that we might get attacked by something that couldn't be killed by mortal weapons." I was confused,"Mortal weapons?" Percy slapped himself in the forehead. He muttered something like,"_glass!_" under his breath. In my mind though, it seemed to proccess it as _vlacas_ which for some reason translated easily to _idiot. _Which was really wierd since I didn't know any other language than english. Then he said," The bronze weapons that I gave you weren't just regular bronze. They were this thing called celestial bronze." I was stunned I had only ever read about such a metal in a fiction book series. Finally I said,"So there was some truth to that series you sent me. That's why you put so much stress on the fact that they were fiction." Percy nodded," And the main character's adventures and life were actually mine. Remember when I would go away all summer long and not return until fall or later?" I nodded hesitantly and said,"Ye-ah. Percy where are you going with this?" Finally he said,"Theses aren't just rattlesnakes these are monster rattlesnakes." "So like a new breed of monster?" Percy ran a hand through his hair and said,"Yeah I geuss. You are definantly peicing this together faster than I would've at your age." Suddenly something clicked in my head,"Wait if I'm your blood sister and your THE Percy from those books, that means-" Percy cut me off and said,"You're a demigod. And a very powerful one at that." Finally I just gave up and said," Oh come on, can my life get anymore complicated?" Percy chuckled and said,"Compared to my life the past four years yours is pretty simple." "Granted, but still, I just find this kind of hard to believe and yet I know it's all true. It's a lot to take in." "Again compared to how I found out that I was a demigod this is easy." I finally lost it,' EASY! I almost got killed by two extremly large rattlers in one day! Plus now I'm not even sure that the anti-venom from the hospital will work! Plus I'm pretty sure that the one guy I like will think I'm crazy because I have tell him." I calmed myself down and after a few minutes I said,"We better get inside there are some people that need this anti-venom. And you better hope to all the greek gods out there that it works." I said the last part with venom in my voice. No pun intended. Then I turned back to my saddle bag and got the anti-venom and a syringe. Then I jogged up to the house and barged into the room. What I came into almost made me drop the anti-venom. Apparently Chase and little Cassie got bitten by the monsters. Percy seemed to pick-up on my shock becuase he told me to go outside and stand gaurd. I refused to though and went over to Chase and check on him. He had gotten bitten in the leg. His leg was swollen so bad that his skin was straining and his blood was a horrible green color. I prayed to all the gods that I knew of to make the anti-venom work, and apparently some of them were listening becuase it actually worked. Then I gave the anti-venom to little Cassie. She hated the little prick but I told her it was for her own good and she settled down. I smiled and told her that everything was going to work out. I was right in the long run but I was terribly wrong in the short term.


	9. Chapter 9

An hour later Chase and Cassie were sound a sleep and I stayed sitting by the couch watching Chase. I took hold of his hand and contemplated all that had happened in the last 24 hours. I mean come on, I had almost died twice from snakes, I found out the town is probably infested with the largest rattlers you will ever see, I'm a demigod-which technically shouldn't even be possible-, my brother's real name isn't Will but Percy Jackson, and my mom isn't even my birth mother but an adoptive mother, my real mother lives in New York, I'm the blood sister to the most famous demigod of modern times, My real last name is Jackson, and I'm probably the most powerful demigod since Percy, so yeah my life had just gone totally wacko in a day. Fun. Eventually I fell asleep. I woke up with my head on the edge of the couch and my hand still holding Chase's. I was about to release my hand when Chase mumbled while trying to keep from chuckling,"Don't let go. Please." I laughed and said,"Yeah sure. But we are going to go out to eat when this is over, got it?" Chase finally chuckled and said,"Yes ma'am!" and mock saluted. I laughed again. When I looked around there seemed to be a lot more people bustling about the mayor's house I looked for Percy and couldn't find him so I said,"Chase I gotta go find my brother. I promise I'll be back as soon as I can." Chase nodded and said,"Alright and I'l hold you to that." I smiled and walked off to find Percy.

After a few minutes walking around and finally decided to ask somebody where he was. I walked up to some blonde girl that I had never seen in my life and asked her,"Hi,um, have you seen my brother he kind of wandered off. He's about 5'11 with shaggy black hair and green eyes," At that the girl drew a greek style dagger out of nowhere. I was threated by this and drew my wicked sharp hunting knife and said,"I'm just looking for my brother. How about we both just put our kinves down and tell each other our names." I started to set my knife down on the ground but the girl lunged. I caught the blade of her knife on the small hilt of my knife and she seemed surprised that I had done that. I myself was a little bit surprised. But I took the opportunity and lunged back at her. I caught her off gaurd and nocked her to the ground. I planted my knee on her chest and put my knife against her throat and growled,"You wanna try that again Wise Girl?" Then I heard Percy's voice behind me say,"Chloe, what are you doing?" I didn't look up at him and said,"Well I asked this Wise Girl where you were and she just drew her knife on me. So I drew my hunting knife and we fought. As you can clearly see I won." Percy chuckled and said,"Annabeth can be a bit over protective sometimes. Now give her back her knife and put away yours. If we're going to work together we can't afford to fight like this." I flipped Annabeth's knife in my hand and caught it point first. I held the hilt out to Annabeth and she took it. I got off Annabeth and helped her up. Then I said,"That was the most challenge I've had in a while. Sorry I pinned you like that." Annabeth just smiled and said,"You're the first person who's beaten me in a knife fight in five years. You're pretty good with that hunting knife. Where'd you get it?" I answered,"Percy mailed it to me for my thirteenth birthday when he was off at college or so I thought." I said as I gave him the evil eye. He actually took a sudden interest in his boots. I chuckled a little when I saw Annabeth's face. Then she said to Percy,"So that's what you were working on all summer at camp." Percy nodded and then Annabeth addressed me again,"What's your relationship to Percy anyway?" I smiled and said,"Oh sorry name's Chloe. Chloe Jackson. I'm Percy's sister." I had took keep from laughing at Annabeth's face. It was pricless! She almost fell over a chair at that. Finally something hit me,"Your last name wouldn't happen to be Chase would it?" Immediatly she was on her guard again,"How do you know?" I shrugged and told her,"I've read stuff. Unlike Percy here I don't have dyslexia. I guess I somehow doged that one. Although I've still got the ADHD. Guess that one just can't be doged." She laughed and said,"Funny your sense of humor actually makes sense. It's kind of hard to believe that you two are related considering how much like a five year Percy acts, and how much more mature you act than him." I laughed and said,"Yeah, he does tend to do that doesn't he?" We both laughed and Then I said,"Well we better get back to work. We still have Zeus only knows how many more rattlers left." Thunder rumbled in the distance. "Scratch that. Even he doesn't know. As near as I can figure, the number of snakes triples the shorter they get so that means That there's at least nine twelve footer rattlers outside somewhere and about 27 11 footers out there." After that I let out my loud whistle to get everyone's attention. Eventually everyone looked up at me. Then I said,"As near as I can figure, the number of snakes triples the shorter they get. I've done the math and there are probably about nine twelve foot rattlers out there and 27 11 footers. From now on this house will be the base of operations and also double as an infirmary. Nobody is allowed to go outside alone. You always have to be in groups of two or three. Got it?" There were a lot of nods. I nodded back and said,"Alright, everyone needs to be armed with a 9mil and some sort of celestial bronze weapon. Now set up as many places for beds and such as you can. I'm going to need someone to go with me to the hospital for more anti-venom, any volunteers?" Annabeth and Percy both raised their hands immediatly. Finally I said,"Alright now let's get back to work and stay on your gaurd. These things are getting smarter. Percy, Annabeth follow me." I felt kind of wierd commanding all these college age kids but they seemed OK with it so I just continued.

When we got outside there were snake nests everywhere. I ran back inside and got a rifle from the gun drawer and got some bullets for it. It was my 243 that I hunted deer with. But I knew that we were going to need it. Finally I came back out and loaded the gun. I told Annabeth,"you may want to cover you ears." she did. I nodded towards Percy and he covered his own. Then I lined up the shot and fired. one down, 36 more monsters to go. The 243 was a semiautomatic and so I just kept firing. Eventually I had killed ten of the things and I needed to reload. I did this so quikly and with such accuracy that Annabeth and Percy couldn't even tell that I had realoaded. Then I started firing again. Ten more down sixteen to go. and so on and so forth. Eventually all the things were dead. I walked down to one and cut it's head off. Annabeth and Percy followed my example. We put all the heads in containers and threw all the bodies in the trash. Then finally I said,"Alright now that's taken care of let's go." I walked up to Buck and made sure to check him for bites. There were none. Finally I mountd him. Then I went out back to the stable and brought back another horse for Annabeth. We all mounted up but Percy rode bareback. He seemed to talk to his horse for a minute and then it took flight. Yeah you heard right, it took flight. No wonder it was so anxious to be off the ground when I first saw it. Then I saw something that made me freeze in the saddle. There was a huge wreathing mass of snakes blocking the road. I grabbed Buck's saddle and whispered in his ear," Sorry boy not this time." He bobbed his head and pawed the ground in defiance. Finally I gave in and said,"Fine but it's your own funeral boy." I touched my heels lightly into his sides and there was a popping sound in my ears. Only later did I realize that he'd broken the sound barrier. I waited until we reached the hospital and then said in Buck's ear,"How did you do that Buck?" Then all the sudden I heard a voice in my head that said_,"One my name isn't Buck, It's Arion. And two I'm Neptune and Ceres son what do you expect?" _I yelled at him in my head_"What!" _He then said_,"I get you had a very confusing day yesterday okay, but don't take it out on me." _I then said,"_Sorry_" Then I went into the hospital.

Once I was inside I found that the front desk already had a whole tray full of anti-venom and syringes ready. When the lady at the desk saw me she said,"I already got these ready for you because I heard about the whole snake thing. If you'd like I could come with you to help administer it. I know how to use a 9mil and I ride pretty well too." I said,"I'm going to need someone with more medical skill than I have because there are going to be a lot more bites before this is over. Although I warning you my horse can break the sound barrier. And we have to go through a snake barracade." The woman gulped but said,"It's my duty." I said,"Alrighty back with me because we already don't have enough people to fight this. By the way do you know anything about greek mythology?" She gave a look that said,"Duh!" and then she actually said,"I'm a roman demigod for pete's sake. It's not greek mythology but I can see through the mist." I said,"Alright then we've got some reinforcements."

About a minute later we got on Arion and a minute after that we were back at the Mayor's house. I called over the radio,"Percy come in." then he responded,"Yeah I'm here were'd the front desk lady go?" "She's with me. Listen get your butt back over here. We've got the anti venom." But Percy said,"No that's a roman demigod don't trust her." Then I said," We've got no choice Percy we need all the help we can get. If we're constantly fighting these things will overrun the town. Besides she's told me that she was here for vacation. She's the roman camp's praetor you know. Anyway she doesn't have any grudge with the greeks OK? Well maybe a small one with you but that's it. So just get your butt over here on that pegasus. Blackjack if I remember right." Percy just said,"Roger that. Percy out."


	10. Chapter 10

About five minutes later Percy arrived. I didn't know what took him so long so I asked him. He just held up two fifteen foot rattler bodies. It made me gasp. That means that There is a sixteen footer out there. Crap! Anyway I told him to take the couch. He gratefully laid down and started to snore. I chuckled lightly at this and then went to find Annabeth. She was standing guard along with some other girl. Then I said,"Hey Annabeth? Can you come here a second?" She nodded and came inside she gave her position to someone else and said,"Yeah Chloe. What's up?" Then I said,"Well I've been thinking, what if I split up from you guys and rode Arion over to the Guadalupe? That way the scent wouldn't be so strong and it might even draw some of the snakes with me. Then I could drown them or something." Annabeth was already shaking her head,"Not without someone else to help you out. I can already tell that if you tried to control that much water by yourself when you've only just discovered you're a demigod it would most likley kill you. I say wait for Percy to wake up and then take him." But I was already shaking my head,"If I wait til then it will already be too late. They'll pick-up on the rest of the demigod smell and right now I'm the one attracting them. Plus they'll be too close for us to do anything by the time he wakes up. Face it, we don't have enough ammo, we don't have enough uninjured fighters and we're already running low on anti-venom again." Annabeth smiled sadly,"That's the second time you've bested me at my own game." I smiled back in the same way,"Well then the decision is made. I'm going to have to make a stand at the Guadalupe river." Annabeth nodded. I told her goodbye for what I thought to be the last time and then I went outside to mount Arion. I mounted him and said one simple word dully,"run" and at that Arion shot away from the house breaking the sound barrier as he did.

Fifteen minutes later we were at the river. I dismounted and Arion protested. But I said to him,"I can control it better if I'm actually touching the water." Finally he relented. Just as I had suspected it drew a lot of the snakes away from the house. I waited until the largest one was in veiw and then I used all my willpower to control the river. I eventually made two watery fists and brought them down on the snakes. Then I used the water to pick them up and drown them in the constant flow of the river. I did but once they were drowned I got light headed as I remounted Arion. I passed out cold on his back. Using that much power had nearly killed me.

When I woke up I was back at the mayor's house. I was laying on a couch When I looked to my right Percy and Chase were sitting there watching me. When I sat up I felt like I had split my head open and then stapled it back together with household staples. When Percy saw me sit up he said,"Thank the gods. I was scared to death. You went out there ALONE to face those snakes when you hadn't even controlled water before. Especially that much."Before he could say more I held up my hand and said,"That's actually not true. In my free time on saturdays I would go down to the creek sometimes and imagine that I could levitate a little of the water. I always had my eyes closed when I was doing it but I could feel that I was doing it." Then Percy said,"Still that much water to control why didn't you wake me up? I should've gone with you." Then I cut him off,"Percy I didn't wake you up because it would've taken half an hour to do so and quite frankly if I had stayed behind to do that it would have been too late to do anything more but a last stand." Suddenly a voice from behind said,"Well at least you have less kelp for brains than your brother here." I looked up to see the smiling face of a girl with electic blue eyes and spiky black hair. Then I said,'You're Thalia right?" She chuckled slightly and nodded. Then she said,"You taught her who we were Percy? Thats probably the smartest thing you've ever done. Anyway we've got other problems. A roman army is coming to the house. They're hold the white flag of truce but I still don't trust them." I smiled instead,'Actually those are the reinforcments. I talked to Reyna who was the nurse at the desk and she said that she would contact her camp and ask them to 'come to our aid' as she put it." Thalia relaxed a little but still gripped her bow Percy intterupted,"Still WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?" Then I said,"I was thinking about my family and my friends, and how I couldn't let them die. When I was thinking about this I realized something. They weren't after the town they were after me. Or you. Or even both of us. We are the strongest scents in this house at the moment. Anyway how long have I been out?" Chase answered this time,"four days. I seriously thought you were going to die. Don't you ever do that again!" I cringed,"Okay, alright I get it. I scared the crap out of everybody but at the time that was the only anyway, four days! What did I miss? everything, nothing?" Chase just shrugged and said,"I don't know maybe you'd drawn all the snakes to the river." But I was already shaking my head,"No they've gotten too smart for that. For all I know they've become smart enough to hide underneath the house and wait for us to let our gaurd down. We've probably gotten ourselves trapped." Then Thalia said,"Got that right. One of my Hunters put out a fake foot and attached a handle to it to see if it was safe and within five seconds it was bitten in so many places that it was too numerous to count." Suddenly I winced. My ribs were acting up again but worse than they had in ages. I tried to bring my legs up over the edge of the couch but the pain in my ribs made me stop moving just to ease the pain. Percy caught me and said,"What happened to you. Did you break you ribs when you blacked out?" I answered no and went into the whole explanation of my accident. It was a painful memory that I would've rather forgotten. Then Percy said,"I'm sorry I should have been there." and he hung his head. But I said,"No it was my own fault I was riding on the wrong side of the rode to begin with." He nodded but still looked guilty. Then I said,"Percy I'll be fine just give me a minute OK?" He said"Alright fine. But take it easy. No more fighting snakes with rivers until your fully healed." I chuckled and said in mock gloom,"Yes, siiir." He laughed and I I called,"Thalia can I talk to you a second." "Sure" "I wanted to ask you, why did you decide to help this little town anyway? You could've just stayed on the Hunt with Artemis and let that be that." Then she answered,"Because you're my friends sister. And besides that's what I do, I help my friends. Plus, I wanted to meet the girl that managed a thirty-five acre ranch by herself and tamed wild horses by simply talking to them since she was four. I mean come on who wouldn't want to meet someone like that? What's more, I wanted to see if you were more mature than Percy." She said with a smile. I playfully punched her arm and she punched me back, just as playfully,"Hey, he's the main reason I was able to live this long with out dying from monster attacks. Granted I almost did fending off a horde of them but still." I sighed. "I miss being care free and not having to worry about when the next snake is going to appear out of nowhere." Thalia said,"Believe me I know the feeling." "You know I don't understand why Percy found it so difficult to get along with you for the first year that he knew you before you joined the Hunt. For me it's so easy and I've never really had another friend that was a girl that I could confide in about things like this. That I could just tell them how I feel without having to be all macho and stuff. I had to grow up with that and I got tired of it. I mean wouldn't you if you had to grow up in a small ranch house and share a room with your brother? It gets annoying. Especially when your brother is that Kelp head." We both laughed at that and then I said,"You know you're kinda fun. It's fun to talk to you. You're easier to talk to than some other people I know," I said nodding my head towards Percy. Then Thalia smirked and said,"Oh, really? Thinking about joining the Hunt?" I laughed and said,"No offense but not on your life." Just then I had and idea. I had started to think about the snake problem again and Thalia seemed to sense my change in mood,"Chloe what's wrong?" Then I said,"Nothing's wrong, I was just thinking, If Percy and I can control water why couldn't we control the movements of the snakes. I mean there's water in their blood right? So if we could reach out with our senses and find that little bit of water in their blood and control it we could technically control the movements of the snakes." Thalia was quick to point out a problem with the plan though,"Yeah but what about all the other blood streams around you and him. You could confuse them and control us instead." Luckily I had already thought about this,"True but Reptilian blood streams have distincly different signatures from human blood streams. They're cold blooded we're not. Plus Because they are hiding out underneath the house they can't go out into the sun to warm up. this would cause them to be really slow in their reaction time and their blood would be really cold by now. So all we have to do is look for the cold water." Annabeth came up behind Thalia, nodded then said,"It could work but what are you going to do once you get the snakes out from under the house?" I answered,"I don't know maybe shoot half of them, maybe just tie them all in knots to eventually they die from loss of circulation." Annabeth seemed impressed," You do know some anatomy. A snakes heart is small and weak. But if you cut off curculation the heart continues to pump blood until eventually the arteries and cappillaries can't take the pressure anymore, furthermore causing massive internal bleeding." I said,"That's the idea." Apparently as we were talking a crowd of the troops had gathered around us Percy at the forefront.

After a second he said,"So we tie them in knots wait for massive internal bleeding to occur and wait for them to die after that?" I said,"Pretty much. So you think we can do it?" Percy looked doubtful,"I don't know, I've never tried. but find the cold water/blood and try to drag it out into the open, tie them all in knots, and wait to see what happens." Annabeth said,'That pretty much sums it up. I admit that it's not much of a plan but so far all of Chloe's plans have worked perfectly except for her nearly dying at the river but still it's worth a shot. And quite frankly it's probably the only one we've got." Finally I sad,"Alright it's been decided. We'll iniciate the plan in half an hour. See you on the other side." I knew that this was probably a death sentence but if it saved my friends and family we might actually stand a chance.


	11. Chapter 11

Half an hour later Percy and I stepped outside. I can imagine that we looked grim. We both knew this was a probable death sentence. But it was the only solution. I nodded to Percy we both knew what to do. I reached my senses out underneath the house. There was so much water there I almost collapsed. I refocused and started to pull it out. I didn't realize that I was just pulling the water from the snakes and not pulling the snakes themselves, until this massive bubble of water came out. No snakes no nothing. Just water. Percy almost faltered in his pulling the snakes out from under the house when he saw what I did. I silently asked him with my eyes if he could the same. He seemed to send back that he'd try but wasn't sure he could. It turned out all it did was lift the snakes up. He shook his head and I tried to do the same to his snakes. I imagined myself pulling the water from the bodies of the snakes and the snakes becoming shrivled and dead. It turned out that wasn't just imagination. It was actually happening. Percy ended up getting the sixteen footer in his bunch and so I really had to strain to get all the water. Once I did however I imagined the water going into the river. The severe drought over the summer had almost completely dried up the river. The water helped a lot.

After I finished all this I walked back into the house and collapsed onto the couch for a nice long nap. When I woke up, I was still on the couch but, Everybody was gone. Even my brother. Had I dreamt the whole thing? Even finding my birth father and getting the horse? What about my brother and the campers? Were they all a dream too? I had to answer these for myself, but first, I was starving. I tried to sit up but my head felt like it had been split open. I laid back down for a second. Then I finally managed to get up.

I stumbled into the kitchen, clinging to the walls for support, and there, raiding the cupboards were a bunch of teenagers in orange and purple t-shirts. I groaned. It had all been real. Then when I finally found my voice I said,"Sheesh! Leave any food for me?" I know great first words but hey, I was REALLY hungry. Then everyone laughed. Finally Reyna said,"Well you still have your _sparkling_ sense of humor. That's good. Anyway We left some cheerios for you. You know cause their healthy." I said,"Oh, come on I just was hoping for at least a descent Roll Pancake but that's OK I'll just make a breakfast taco for myself." I walked over tho the fridge and got an egg, some milk, and a bowl to put them into. Then I cracked the egg and put it in the bowl. I poured about a talespoon of milk over the egg and grabbed a mixing fork. I stirred up the egg and milk til it was all one color and then put the fork in the sink. I grabbed a small pan out of the cupboard and put it on the burner. I turned the burner on to medium heat. Then I grabbed some butter and melted it in the pan. After it was melted I swirled it around in the pan until the whole surface was covered. Then I finally added the egg and scrambled it. I put it on a tortilla with a hashbrown and some cheese.

After I finished my breakfast taco I took care of my dishes. I let everyone wash their own. I wasn't their handmaid you know. Anyway about an hour after that Percy came down from my room. I can't imagine that he slept very comfortably on my short bed since he's like 5' 11 and a half. Or maybe he slept on the floor. Who knows with him. So yeah I was reading a book called ,"The Echo of Greece" It was about the history of greece and how it has influenced modern life and architechture even though the civilization died out, at least that's what the author thinks. Ha! Don't I wish. I was so engrossed in the irony of the book when compared to my life that I didn't realize he was standing right next to me until he said,"Good morning. Glad you're awake. I'm guessing by the stack of clean dishes that you made everyone clean their own plate." I just absent mindedly said,"Yup." and kept reading. As I read I said out loud,"Ha! Don't I wish!" and then went back to reading silently. Eventually I put the book down to go get dressed. Unfortunantly, I walked in on Percy and Annabeth during a make-out session. Then I said disgusted that they were having it in my spare room,"Get a different room, and I am probably never going to touch that wall again." I scared them apparently. They both left and went to a different room. I was glad I had my spare room back. I walked over to my closet and changed out of my monster slime and snake blood covered pants and shirt and changed into some other work clothes. A plain white T and another pair of dust covered jeans. I put on my regular boots and grabbed my straw hat. I called Down the hall to the mayor's room and probably to Percy too,"Alright I'm gonna go take care of the cattle. See yall in about 3 hours." Then I rushed down the stairs and out the door Arion was still saddled and I said,"Do you mind being used a cattle horse for a little while?" He answered in my head,"_Sure no problem. Besides I need a stretch. The pace of regular horses is just a yawning pace for me."_ I thanked him and got on. Then I headed back over to my ranch to tell my parents that it was all over. Except when I got there snakes were all around the house. I closed my eyes and tried to use my powers but I only managed to dry up about half of them. It took two tries to take care of them. Finally I got up the steps to my house my parents were upstairs sniping at the rattlers with a 22 rifle. They seemed confused that the snakes just shrivled and died. but when they saw the massive water bubble that I was carrying they understood. I'd used my power to stop the snakes. Anyway, So then I said,"It's all over now the rest of the snakes have been neutralized with Percy's help."

We spent an hour catching up on all that had happened. Then I said,"Well, I better take care of the cattle. See you in an hour. Oh and don't worry, I'm taking my 9mil with me."

"Alright see you later. AND BE CAREFUL!" I cringed a little but kept walking. When I got outside there was someone waiting for me. It was Chase. I remembered my promise to him and said,"We'll go after I'm done with the cattle." Chase nodded and then said,"You're on. Want some help?" I smiled and said,"I'd love some help. Thanks, Chase."

An hour later we were done with the cattle and I had to keep my promise to Chase. I told him to give me a minute real quick and I ran upstairs. I changed into my dress shirt, pants and hat and grabbed my leather jacket on my way out of my room. I came back down the stairs and said,"Alright lets go." Chase just stood there gawking at me as I walked past. Finally I said,"Well come on let's go! What are you waiting for?" Chase came after me and got on his horse.

We had a nice diner but then I finally had to tell him,"Chase I'm going to go to camp." Chase almost choked on his linguini and said,"What?" I smiled sadly and said,"This whole fiasco has just proved how unready I am to face the fight that will become my life. I have to do this. I promise that I will stay for the rest of the year but you saw how I almost died from using that much of my power this early. I have to go. I have to learn to survive. I'll even set up my own firing range and get the forge to make celestial bronze bullets. But I PROMISE on pain of death that I will come back when camp is over for the summer, unless something comes up that is life or death for me, my friends, or the camp. Which is practically never now that the titan war is over. Please Chase, trust me just this once." Finally something seemed to click,"If it means you don't pass out anymore it's alright. You can go. But you have to write or text regularly." I said,"I'll write. having a cellphone and using it for a demigod is like sending up a flare for monsters,"_here I am please rearrange my face!"_ Chase laughed at that and I smiled. I missed hearing him laugh. Then I said,"So you'll let me go? At least for the summer?" Then I realized something and I said,"Oh gods, I feel so stupid, I feel like I'm pleading with a boyfriend." Chase laughed and said,"But I'm not because you're not allowed to date til you're sixteen." My jaw dropped and he chuckled and said,"I talked to your thought-to-be-real-dad-but-not and he said it that I couldn't start dating you til you were sixteen. So you better stay alive til then." I laughed and he said,"I'll miss you but it's for the best."

The next day I left for camp. I had packed my old suitcase. It was a faded black suit case with wheels. I had made sure to wear my bull hide boots. All I had were boots actually. I'd have to buy a pair of sneakers at the camp store. I said good-bye to everybody. I first went to little Cassie and said,"You be good now ya hear?" She nodded and gave me a hug. I knew she was squeezing her hardest so I feigned wheezing and said,"Ugh-_wheez_-can't-_wheez_-breathe." When she let go she was smiling but there were tears in her eyes. I smiled sadly,"You gonna cry?" I knelt down and opened my arms. Little Cassie ran into them like it was the last time she would ever feel them. I hugged her tight and said,"You sure you're gonna be okay?" She shook her head no and I just chuckled slightly. She looked up at me with puffy red eyes and I said,"Come on I know you wanna sock me for laughing. give me your best shot," She punched me alright. If she wasn't so little I might have thought I had gotten hit by a heavy weight champion. I laughed and tousled her hair she pouted as she straightened it. I laughed a little and shook my head.

Next it was the mayor's turn. I looked at him and said,"Thank you sir, for everything." He just enveloped me in a bear hug and said,"I told you to call me Bob. Now go kill some monsters for us and make this little town proud to have you come out of it!" I dropped my bags and gave him a hug. He hugged me back. "I'll miss your odd ball humor Mr. Meyer." and then picked up my bags again.

Lastly it was Chase and Clay's turn. I knew Clay hated to be hugged so I did it anyway. I wanted them to remember me as the happy-go-lucky-annoying-girl next door. Clay whimpered and I laughed and said,"I'll miss you too, fragil`e geek." To my surprise he laughed too. Then I moved on to Chase. I was going to miss him. I hugged him and said,"I'll be back I promise." I pulled away and he smiled and said,"I'll hold you to that." I leaned in and gave him a kiss on the cheek and said,"I know you will. You take care of your family now, ya hear?" He nodded and hugged me again,"I'll miss you Chloe." I laughed and said,"This isn't good-bye forever you know. It's just for the summer." He nodded and pulled away. Then he said,"Good luck, Chloe." I nodded and moved on. Lastly were my parents. I said good-bye and got on the bus. the other campers were getting impatient. From there it was a long ride to california for the romans and then an even longer one to new york and then long island, where I would be spending my summer.


	12. Chapter 12

**Percy's POV**

The rest of the ride Chloe just sat staring out the window. I had a feeling she was still thinking about home. Finally after five days of being on a bus we were on the last leg of the journey. We were just a few miles away from camp now. Finally we arrived at camp. Chloe stretched herself and then got her bags. The night before we left I had gone through her stuff to make sure she had everything and man oh man did she ever. She packed her 22 rifle with stainless steel barrel, her 243, and her 9mil. She didn't bring any ammunition except for her 243 ammo and her 22 ammo. I suspected she'd have the hepheastus guys make her some celestial bronze bullets that could be reused. Once she got into the camp she said,"I'm probably going to like this place. Although it could use a firing range. And I'd need some celestial bronze bullets but I can do that." Later that night she was claimed. not that anybody who was at the snake fight didn't know just the gods are sticking to the rules. For once. The next morning she was the first one up. She always is, I was suddenly woken up by a slap to the face," get up Percy. the Conch horn just blew and if you don't get up neither of us will get breakfast." I grumbled,"Alright I'm up. let me get changed please." Instead of me just having her look away she put up a non transparent wall of water and said,"You better hurry. I'm hungry. Because in case you hadn't noticed this isn't the easiest thing to do on an empty stomach." I chuckled lightly and muttered,"Same old, same old." She said,"What was that. I know you're not changing if you're talking. You just don't multi task like that." I hurried and got changed. She let down the wall and said,"Great late for breakfast on my first day."

When we got to the pavilion everyone was already eating. As Chloe walked past Annabeth she stopped for a second when she heard Annabeth say,"Late for breakfast on your first day?" Annabeth made atsk tsk noise and Chloe responded,"Only because of Sleeping Beauty over here." I yelled,"Hey!" Annabeth laughed and said," see you later. Maybe at the archery range." Chloe just said,"Na, I gotta talk to Chiron about getting a firing range put in. Then I gotta talk to the hephaestus kids about making some reusable bullets." "Alright then. See ya." Annabeth called as she left.

After that I ate and went on to my classes. Chloe went up to the Big House to talk to Chiron about getting the firing range put in. I had to laugh at the thought. Every day just before lunch for an hour all you would hear would be the firing of a 9mil. No way would Chiron agree to that. But I was wrong. An hour after Chloe went up to the Big House she came out and she was grinning like a madman. I could tell that Chiron had just accepted her proposal of a firing range becuase once she was outside and the door had closed she pumped her fists. Only I saw that Chiron was watching through the window, chuckling and shaking his head while smiling. I had to laugh too. From now on we were going to hear a 9mil firing while Chloe practiced. Maybe an occasional 243 when she was hunting a deer or something. Good luck with that Chloe.

Anyway, after that she went to the forges to talk to the hepheastus kids about making some reusable bullets. Chloe spent to whole day down at the forges. When she came back to the cabin she was covered in grime and sweat. I told her she could take my shower slot. She gladly accepted and went down to the showers to clean up. When she came back she was wearing the regular blue T shirt and dusty jeans. She was wearing her boots, as usual. She seemed obstenant about wearing her old stuff. So she came back and said,"So when's supper?" as if on cue the conch horn blew and I said,"Right about now." She nearly ran all the way to the pavilion. I could tell she was hungry because when it got to the whole blessing thing she was just moaning under her breath,"Oh come on already I wanna eat." I had to stifle a laugh. That was all she ever thought about. Food and guns. But hey she grew up in texas a tomboy. You had to if you were managing a ranch by yourself, doing chores, and juggling school all at the same time. I had to admit that I was impressed that she had kept the ranch running and that it hadn't gone bankrupt yet when I came back.

So there we were at the dining pavilion. There were mutterings and whispers all around. People kept sneeking glances at Chloe. She seemed totally fine with it. But then again she was focused on stuffing herself full of food. You would think that she hadn't eaten in a month. At one time I heard one demigod say,"She's gonna use a 9mil against monsters." another one said,"but she still fights with a sword and a knife. Best knife fighter I've seen since Annabeth." an yet another said,"And she's the best swodfighter that I've seen that hasn't had any training whatsoever. Even better than Percy when he first started." but then one last one said,"typical texan. I mean using a 9mil against monsters. All texans just use guns. but then again this is the first texan that we've had. plus she's good at everything except foot racing and archery."

After dinner Chloe went straight to bed. She didn't care for sing-alongs. Unless it was country. I went to the campfire for smore's. After the sing-along was over I went back to the cabin to find Chloe sacked out on the top bunk. I slept on my own top bunk considering there were two sets of bunk beds. I slept on one, she slept on the other. So, I just said,"Night Chloe." and got in bed.

The next morningChloe went back to the forges first thing after breakfast. She seemed to settle in just fine. Later she came out with a modified 9mil. It was now totally black with an ebony hand grip. She could also turn the saftey on and the gun would morph itself into a grey, metallic, trident with a blue catseye stone at the base of the middle prong of the trident. She also showed me the new bullets that she had. The bullets were similar to my sword but not quite th same. Once they were used and hopefully killed the monster they would reshape themselves and reappear in the clip. She also had her hunting knife constantly strapped to her thigh unless of course she was in bed. Then she kept it within easy reach and on her night stand. She had been busy working with the hepheastus kids all right. Her knife now had a sharper point and it had a slightly larger hilt.

About a month passed and they finally had the firing range built. I was a little nervous that Chloe would be the only one there but I also knew that she could take care of herself. Once they opened the firing range, Chloe went down to practice and get rid of the rust on her marksmanship. A few minutes after she went down she started to practice. Apparently the hephaestus kids had put some kind of magic muffler on the gun so it wouldn't be so loud. But even so a few curious campers came down to see how good Chloe was. I was among them. I wanted to see how good she was after a month of not practicing. Apparently she was still pretty dang good. Almost all of her shots were inside the bullseye. But she didn't seem satisfied with the results. She muttered something under her breath. probably,'I know I'm better than this!" More campers came to see what all the fuss was about. About an hour passed and by the end of it the whole camp was watching. Even Chiron and Mr. D, which really surprised me. Also by the end of the hour, all of Chloe's shots were going in the exact same place. The center of the bullseye, and all going in the same original hole made by the first bullet. I was dumbfounded. Even I wasn't that good with a 9mm.

When she finished her appointed one hour of practice she pushed the button to bring the target in. There was a button that released the clip from the gun and let it drop. She caught the clip mid air and then laid it down flat on the gunbench. Then she set the gun down, facing down range. She nodded in satisfaction and then she took off her ear protection and eye protection. Then she turned around, probably to go back to the cabin when she found all of us staring at her. Our looks all must have been either, dumbfounded, awed, or scared because she started to laugh. Then she said,"You guys should see your faces!" Then she just said,"I'm going to go back to the cabin now Percy, if that's alright with you. But first I'm going to clean out my gun. I'll see you at sword practice in a little bit." I just nodded as she grabbed her gun and clip and then went back to the cabin. I turned around to come face to face with Chiron. He then said with new respect in his voice,"You trained her well Percy. Just don't get on her bad side. She's good with that knife of hers." I chuckled,"She comes by it naturally I guess."

When I went back to the cabin Chloe was cleaning her gun. She definantly took care of her guns. then when she heard me walk in she said,"Hey, Percy?" I answered,"Yeah?" "Do you know why everyone is so, I don't know, interested in me and my talents?" I answered honestly,"I really have no idea. They weren't this interested even when I first came to camp." She shrugged,"Oh well see you at sword practice in half an hour?" I said,"Sure thing, sis." I said as I walked out the door and she yelled after me,"And DON'T CALL ME SIS!" I laughed. I still had my annoying older brother touch.

Half an hour later Chloe and I were paired up as partners for sword practice. I decided that for today we'd just see who could beat who in a duel. Everyone was paired off. Then we started. Chloe stuck to her sword that she had made to fit her hand perfectly and it was weighted perfectly too. so anyway I called,"Begin" and the sword arena was filled with the sound of clashing swords. I decided that I'd go easy on Chloe since this was only her second sword instruction class. but as it turned out I didn't need to go easy on her. I had to use all my skill just to keep from getting whapped in the ribs by the flat of her blade. she kept saying," I thought that you were the best swordsman in three hundred years, Perce." That got me mad and I became kind of reckless I'll admit. Our duel was the last one to finish. it went on for over an hour. The rest of the campers attending the lesson had formed a circle of a crowd to watch. The duel finally ended When Chloe drew her knife and crossed it with her sword in an X formation. I didn't know what she was doing until my vertical stroke clanged against the two weapons. Then she realeased the knife from the formation while still holding my sword with hers and whapped me in the mid-section, hard, with the flat of her blade. I tried one last desperate attempt at getting a swat at her but she just parried it, disarmed me, and held her knife at my throat. Then I said,"I yield." She just smiled and said back,"That was for calling me sis. And besides, you shouldn't get angry so easily. You get reckless when you do." Then she sheathed her knife and extended her hand. I didn't think she could lift me with one hand but she was a lot stronger than she looked. Then she put her sword back in it's sheath and started off towards the lake. I called after her,"Hey where you going?" She just called back,"For a swim!" Then she walked down to the dock and jumped in in a nose dive. She started to swim farther and farther out and then went under. I knew she'd be fine but still, she was my sister. I always got irrationally worried about her.

After another lesson Connor and Travis Stoll came up to me and said,"Dude we heard you got whipped by a girl! And it was your sister? Since when did you have a sister?" I just answered,"Since I was six. Can we please not talk about this right now?" Then I added,"Although I'd warn you not to go pulling any pranks on her. If you remember her firing range performance That's what you'd be in five seconds if you did." They both gulped loudly and looked at each other,"You're right. I wouldn't want to get on that crazy chicks bad side. By the way, would it be alright if one of us dated her?" I looked at them like they were crazy,"Guys you're nineteen. She's thirteen. And besides she's already got a boyfriend back home. So go find someone your own age." They both walked away pouting and saying,"Dang it! I owe you five bucks because she wasn't sixteen like she looked." I silently laughed and went back to the cabin. Apparently Chloe had picked up a little in time for evening inspection. Her side of the cabin was spotless but mine just had clothes picked up off the floor.

It had been a week since I'd been back from texas and Chloe had settle in nicely. Now it was finally friday night. Chloe was going in fully armed. She was taking her 9mm, now loaded with beanbags for the game, her knife, and her sword. She didn't bother with sheild. She said it would just hinder her ability to aim correctly. I believed her. the things weighed like ten thousand pounds. I decided that we'd both captain the blue team. She readily agreed but that she'd stay by the flag. I was perfectly fine with that. The game began and we all went to our designated positions. I charged off to get the red team flag and Chloe stayed by our flag.

**A/N: YAY! I finally got in a different point of view after a while. hope you're liking the story so far but yeah. This is probably a really crappy story so i wil accept flames if you don't like it.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chloe's POV**

I was tanding by the flag and gaurding it when I felt like somebody was behind me. I closed my eyes and focused on increasing my hearing ability. They were right behind me and i could feel it. I reached my arm behind me. I ended up grabbing a neck. I took a firm hold of it and flipped the invisible person forward over my shoulder so they hit the ground with a thud. I heard something light but kind of heavy plop onto the ground. I put my knife at their throat and opened my eyes. There lying on the ground with her hands up in surrender was Annabeth. Then I yelled, "Hey, Jason can you give me a hand here?" Jason ran down over to me and said,"With what?" I rolled my eyes,"The prisoner. Duh. Confescate her hat over there somewhere off to my right, if you will." Jason grabbed the hat and searched Annabeth for any weapons other than her dagger which we had already taken. Then I had an idea. i knew Annabeth was smart so I assumed that she would hide another weapon in a place that they wouldn't think to look. Then I said,"Jason? Chack he sneekers would you please." He went over an ripped off Annabeth's sneakers. In her right sneaker there was a small dagger unerneath the sole of the shoe. Annabeth was dumbfound. She asked,"How did you know?" "Well it's simple really. You are smart, but you're also dignified. so you wouldn't hide a dagger in someplace like your underwear. The sneaker would be the last thing anyone would think of. I have to congratulate you though for your cleverness." She laughed,"Look's like you're earning quite a rep at camp already as a gunslinger, a knife fighter, a swordfighter, a capture the flag captain, and apparently a hottie by a guys's standards, who knew?" Suddenly I realized something,"Jason go back to the flag make sure nobody get's it. Now!" Then I looked at Annabeth like she was crazy and said,"Say WHAT?" Annabeth seemed confused by my reaction then a look of understanding dawned in her eyes,"Yeah it does seem pretty outrageous. Most guys are into girls that wear short shorts and sphagetti strap tan tops." I laughed and said,"You mean Aphrodite girls?" She nodded. Then she said,"Oh look, here comes my ride." I looked up and four ugle Ares campers with red plumes were coming my way. I moved away from Annabeth so that she couldn't do anything to me from behind and yet still close enough to keep th uglies from rescuing her. I figured that I could take these guys. In my opinion they were just a bunch of overweight bullies thowig their weight around. Pun intended. I stepped towards Ugly #1 and he charged. I tended to use rage to my advantage in fights. Rage makes a person reckless, so they make simple mistakes that should be common sense not to do. So I yell insults at my enemy like for instance with this one I said,"Your dad is the lamest god to ever exist." He growled and charged me. I simply side stepped and crouched asthe ares kid to a charging swing at me. I let it go over my head and held the flat of my sword towards his foot as he charged past so that it would trip him. One down four more to go. No problem. Uglies number two and three came at me. I pulled out my 9mm and cocked it. They knew as well as I did that it was just loaded with beanbag rounds. They also knew how fast and accuratly that I could shoot. Say for instance that I shot both of them in the middle of the helmet I wouldn't kill them just knock them unconcious. Then I said,"Take one more step and I'll knock you both out." They kept coming. So typical. I feigned uncertainty and then pulled the trigger twice once for each ugly. They both decided it was time for a little nap time and collapsed. That left one ugly behind me and one in front of me. I drew my knife and held it blade first. Ready throwing position. I pointed the gun at ugly number four and held the knife pointed at ugly number one. Ugly number one wasn't as smart as ugly number four and came at me again. I threw the knife at the helmet of the first ugly in such a way that the hilt hit the helmet and knocked out ugly number one. That left ugly number four. He started to charge me but didn't get past his third step. He crumpled to the ground unconcious. Annabeth looked at me dumbfounded. I smiled and said,"It just comes to me by instinct." Then I heard shouting across the creek. Percy had the flag and was getting coveredby two Apollo kids. But they weren't enough. The reds were gaining. I brought up my gun and pointed it at the red closest to Percy and pulled the trigger. The red went down I shot two more and finally Percy was across the creek. We had won. I looked up at Percy and smiled. He noticedmy smoking barrel and Said,"Thanks for the extra cover back there." That's when he seemed to notice the four unconcious Ares campers. He looked at me and was about to say something but I knew what he was going to ask and held up my 9mm. Then I went over to the first ugly and retrieved my knife. I chuckled. I hadn't used my sword at all during this game. I resheathed my knife and said,"Alright then we won. And i thought that Annabeth always won." Percy smiled and said,"That's usually because she's on my team." I chuckled and Annabeth mock glared at the two of us. We all laughed. Then Annabeth said,"You know Chloe, those weresome of the best fighters from the Ares cabin and you took them all down within two minutes?" Percy looked at her like she had lost her mind,"Say what?" Annabeth chuckled and said,"Well I guess you are realated. And yes she did. I was counting the time. It was more for the purpose to see how long it took the Ares campers to rescue me. She also has some of the best natural fighting instincts I've ever seen. She had the brains to step a few feet away from me while she faught them so that I couldn't sabbatoge her not so far away as to where she couldn't stop the ares campers from rescueing me, and to top it all off she could keep track of all four of them. Plus when I tried to sneek up on her and steal the flag, it seemed like she could sense my presence from ten feet away. I should have known that my invisibility hat wouldn't work with her here. When I was right behind her she just reached behind herself with her right arm while her eyes were closed, no doubt listening for me, and flung me over right shoulder to a hard thud on the ground in front of her at which point she proceeded to put her knife at my throat. And she put the knife atmy throat while her eyes were closed. It was like she was able to heighten her senses beyond the human capability. It was impressive." Percy looked down right scared. I laughed at his face and just said what I told Annabeth earlier,"It just comes to me by instinct." Annabeth cracked a smile and Percy just looked clueless. We both laughed. When we saw Percy turn from clueless to serious we stopped laughing. He looked grave as he said,"We need to talk to Chiron about this after the celebration is over. In the mean time enjoy the celebration." People kept slapping Percy on the back and congratulating him. He just kind of accepted it and then said that I was the real hero of the game. If I hadn't shot down the three reds on his heels he wouldn't have. Won then he told the whole story of me fighting Annabeth and the Ares campers over again. It made me feel uncomfortable with all this attention. Suddenly it was me who was getting slapped on the back. I hated all the attention. I told them that I needed to clean my gun and started to walk back to my cabin. But before I even got five steps a lot of boys ran after me and I sighed in exasperation. Would I ever get any peace? Then one who looked about my age with black hair and brown eyes asked,"Would you like to go out on like, an, I don't know, date?" I sighed again. Annabeth was right about one thing. Boys were after me. I answered him,"No." and kept walking. I gave all of them the same simple, one worded answer,"No." They all went away sulking and I felt kind of bad but I had a relationship back home. I was waiting til I was sixteen to start dating anyway. I finally got to my cabin and closed my door. Finally peace and quiet. I got out my gun cleaning kit and began to clean the barrel of my 9mm. Then I cleaned the slide and oiled it. I ended up getting oil on my shirt so I had to change. i grabbed another plain blue T-shirt and was about to change when i felt eyes on me coming from the window. I turned around and there were boys galore staring waiting fo me to take offmy shirt. I walked over to the window, opened it, leaned out, and gave them all a good backhanded slap and said,"PERVS! Go back to your own girlfriend and be true to her. Don't cheat on her with even your eyes. Unless of course you want me to tell them what you were doing." They all started to shake their heads emphatically so I said,"THEN GET LOST!" and i slammed the window shut and closed the curtains I rolled my eyes. Boys. Always such pervs when they think someone is even remotely cute. The only one that's not is Chase and that's because he's a really good friend. I changed shirts and then waited for Percy to get back. He was probably having another makeout session with Annabeth. YUCK! I hate all that moochy stuff.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chase's POV**

My family and I waited for Chloe and her family outside of the house. We had only been outside for about three minutes when we heard hooves pounding the ground. a few seconds later a figure on a horse apeared on the horizon. They slowed down to a trot then a canter. Eventually they slowed down to a walk and when I could make out clear features I realized it was Chloe riding a horse. I didn't know who it belonged to becuase it wasn't one of her ranching horses and anyhow they both hated her. Plus those horses were old. from the looks of this one he was only about two years old. When Chloe came into clear view she was wearing a black leather jacket over a silkish looking ruffle shirt along with a black hat with turquoise stones on it. She had on some navy almost black boot cut jeans and black bull hide boots. her hair was slightly disshevled from the ride but it was still a lot neater than usual. And to top it all of her saddle was pitch black with silver leaf detailing. It looked extremely expensive. In other words she looked like a million dollars. After a second she stepped down from the saddle wincing slightly as she did so. Probably because her leg was still bothering her. Then she just walked up to us trying to hide a smile but not very successfully and said,"Hi, everybody. What're you all staring at?" We all just pointed behind her and she smiled as turned around. I always found that smile kinda cute. Then when she came face to face with the massive horse she just rubbed his muzzle and said,"Good boy, Buck." Then she seemed to give him a hand signal and he wandered off with intent to graze. Then Chloe seemed to notice that we were still staring so she said,"Oh, sorry. That's Buck. My biological dad gave him to me as a working horse and as a pleasure horse. So I ride him pretty much everywhere." Finally everyone but me snapped out their trance and started to congratulate her on a horse that didn't hate her. She laughed at the way they congratulated her. I smiled. I thought that her laugh was probably the most amazing sound you will every hear. Then she seemed to remember something and let out the most peircing whistle I had ever heard. Buck trotted over to her and she praised him. I was amazed at how well she handled this massive horse that could trample her in an instant, without any fear what so ever. She went over to her saddle bag and untied it from the saddle. She then called,"Hey, Cassie! Can you come here a sec?" I watched as little Cassie came over by Chloe and her eyes seemed to light up at the sight of the saddle bag. Then Chloe said," I brought some more of my old clothes. We'll make a cowgirl of you yet." She said as she playfully messed up Cassie's hair. Funny, Chloe was the only one she tolerrated to do that. Cassie straightened her hair up and then said,"Can I see them now? Please?" She showed Chloe her best pouty face and Chloe brought out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I knew it would satisfy Cassie for now.

After Chloe sent Buck out to graze she told Cassie to go and hide so that Chloe could try to find her. The only ones left outside after that were me and Chloe. Apparently I was still staring with my jaw dropped because as she walked past she whispered teasingly,"You okay Chase? You seem a little stunned that I actually clean up well." Then she kept walking towards the door much slower. I recoverd myself a little and got the door for her. She did the polite thing and said,"Thank you, Chase." I responded with my voice craking on her name,"You're welcome,Chloe." Chloe glanced over when she heard my voice crack. I was absolutly certain that I was blushing to some extent. Chloe smiled and said,"You coming or not?" I scrambled inside after her._ Dang it! Why am I always so clumsy around her? _And the tiny little voice in my head said,"_because you like her,duh!_"

A little while after that her parents arrived and we had diner. We had some small talk around the table but the main thing for my sibling was teasing me about Chloe. Of course Chloe sat with her parent out of respect and consequently they were at the opposite end of the table as us. I was kind of sad that she didn't sit with us at the end of the table, but also glad because this way she couldn't hear all of the teasing about me actually _like_ liking her. After about an hour Chloe's parents took their leave. It was funny though becuase as Chloe's dad left he winked at Chloe and her mom just nodded almost imperceptably. For some reason, Chloe turned a deep shade of crimson and I wondered what kind of understanding had just past between them. After Chloe's parents took their leave we broke out the Twister and Monopoly. A few hours later everyone was getting tired and Chloe seemed to pick up on this. That was another thing I liked about her. She was always so perceptive. Everyone begged her to stay the night but she explained that she had bills to pay. Everyone was already aware of her situation with having to pay the bill's herself. She also explained that she had a lot of of homework and chores to get caught up on since she had been incapcitated. Then she said goodnight to everyone and headed out the door. My dad was the first to break the silence,"Well? Why don't you just go ask her to the movies this weekend?" I looked at my dad and asked,"That obvious?" My dad just nodded and said,"Well gat after her then!" I leaped off the couch and ran for the door. I made it outside just as she was wheeling Buck back towards her ranch. Chloe turned around when she heard the door slam. When I caught up to her she let me catch my breath before asking,"Did I forget something?" I managed to get out,"Yeah, you forgot to give me a goodnight kiss and I didn't get to say good-bye because I was putting the Twister up." Chloe chuckled and then held up her hand to stop me from saying anything else. Then she said,"Chase, you are a really bad liar. What is your real reason for running out here like that?" In my head I thought,"_Dang she's good!"_ On the ouside I just sighed in defeat and said,"I wanted to ask you if you wanted to catch a movie this weekend. Maybe saturday about 5:00?" Chloe winced a little and said,"I'm sorry Chase, but I still have a lot of make-up work and chores to do since you know, the accident." I winced at that memory. I hated seeing her like that, unconcious in the hospital bed. I had asked the doctor not to tell her that I had visited and I left after about an hour. Chloe seemed to think about something and then said,"But you could come over to my house for about half an hour. Return the favor of diner and games." She smiled at the last,return the favor, bit. Then she wheeled Buck back towards her ranch. As she headed straight for the fence she soared over it easily. As she sped away into the distance I thought how good she looked tonight and how good she looked in that leather jacket. Then I went back to the house and to bed. Everyone watched me as I went to bed in a trance. Clay and Cassie snickered and said,"She must have kissed him." I decided to just let them think that.


	15. Chapter 15

I must have looked as giddy as a schoolgirl because Percy just asked,"Something to do with Chase?" I nodded and said,"He got claimed while I was I-ming him." Percy's eyebrws shot up and then he said,"Go ahead and take Blackjack. Then you can ride Arion back and he can ride Blackjack with his stuff. If he packs anything like you he's going to need the horse with the most strength." I thanked him and then went to the stables to wake Blackjack up.

When I got there Blackjack was already up. Then he said in my mind,"_Yo Chloe. Heard that you were going to pick up Chase and bring him back here. Need a ride?" _I smiled and said,"That would be great thanks." Then I took him out of his stall and took off towards Texas.

True to my word I arrived about an hour later. When I got there Chase was waiting on the steps. He had already told his parents everything. They let him go but only for the summer. When he finally spotted me in the sky his smiled wider than I thought was humanly possible. I grinned back. Then I said,"Put your stuff on his back. It will instantly be transferred into a saddle bag." Chase did and Then got on Blackjack. Then I said,"I'm just going to make one more stop." Chase nodded and we took flight. I lead Blackjack towards my ranch and the stables.

When we landed I got off Blackjack and went into the stables. When I came back out I had Arion with me. Blackjack started to say,"_who-"_ But before he got any further I said,"Blackjack meet Arion. Son of Neptune and Ceres./Posieden and Demeter. Arion started to say,"_who's this guy?"_ But I just cut him off," Arion meet Blackjack. probably the only pure black pegasus to exist." They both whinnied a curt hello at one another. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. When would boys ever stop fighting? Then finally I said,"Arion I'm going to bring you back to camp with me. Just let me get your saddle and bridle." Arion just bobbed his head. I went back and got his tack. Then I came back put Arion's saddle on him. Lastly I put his bridle on. He didn't care for it much but he let me put it on him. Then I said to Chase"Race you?" Then those same famous last words,"You're on."

I got on Arion and Chase got on Blackjack. I gave him the directions to camp and then told Arion to run. My ears popped when he broke the sound barrier. The last thing I heard was Blackjack saying in my head,"_Hey! I didn't know he could run that fast! Not fair!" _I just laughed and kept going. Of course I made it back to camp before Chase. When he finally made it to the camp borders he got off Blackjack and was grinning like a madman. I had to laugh when he said,"That is so cool!" Then I said,"Come on. I'll show you to your cabin as soon as you've talked to Chiron."

An hour later I took Chase to his cabin. I decided to prank him by taking his wallet and then saying that he had dropped it. But apparently he was more sensitive than the other Hermes guys because as I was taking it Chase said,"I wouldn't do that if I was you. You know I always get even." I laughed and continued walking towards the Hermes cabin.

"Alrighty then here we are." Then Chase said,"HeyChloe you wanna date here at camp so that guys will stop chasing after you?" Then I said,"Yeah sure. That would probably give me some peace and quiet for once." After that Chase said,"You're on." and walked into his cabin.

The next day I decided I'd meet Chase after breakfast. I went down to his cabin and apparently he had already seen me because he was already opening the door before I knocked. Chase was grinning when he said,"Hey Chloe! Whats up?" Then I asked,"You wanna go down to the lake?" He grinned wider and said,"Race you!" and took off. I ran after him. He beat me there and dived in. I followed. When I found him, which by the way wasn't hard, He was treading water. Of course I could stay under for as long as I wanted but instead I grabbed his feet, pulled him under, and made an air bubble. When he could breathe again he looked around until I tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around. I smiled and he smiled back. Then I said,"So, now that we're not busy you wanna talk or something?" Then Chase did something that surprised me. He kissed me. And not on the cheek. Eventually I kissed him back nad then we broke apart for air. Then I looked at Chase and then back at the surface of the lake. He caught what I was trying to say and nodded. I will the current to push us up to the surface. When we broke the surface our bubble popped. I willed the current to take us to the dock and I hoisted myself up onto the dock. Chase hoisted himself onto the dock and then said,"Can you dry me off with your powers or do I have to be old fashioned?" I laughed and used my powers to extract the water from his clothes. Then I dumped it back in the lake. Then I grabbed Chase's and led him to the sword arena. We were just in time for lessons. I went and grabbed my sword and knife. Then I got a sword for Chase and handed it to him. Then I walked over to Percy to get my sparring partner. He paired me with Chase. I smiled and went back to Chase. Then I said,"You're my sparring partner for today." Chase grinned. Then Percy said,"Begin" and we began to spar. Surprisingly Chase was pretty good. I had to work to block quite a few of his slices. Finally I won though. I had disarmed him and had my sword pointed at his throat. Finally Chase said,"I yeild. You've definantly gotten better in a week." I sheathed my sword and helped Chase up. Then I handed Chase his sword hilt first. When he took his sword I made the mistake of looking at him. He was covered in sweat and he had decided to wear a muscle shirt to practice. I remember thinking, Gods he's hot, and the next thing I knew he had me swept into his arms with his sword at my throat,"No distractions. Remember?" I smiled and said,"I yeild." Then he took his sword away from my throat, but he didn't release me from his arms. I personally didn't mind but Percy broke it up by saying,"Alright. That's enough of the flirting, Chloe. Back to sparring." Gods, he's a hard teacher.

After sword practice I headed to the climbing wall. I almost got hit by some falling rocks and lava but I managed to dodge them. I swung out without any harnessing and then came back in and kept climbing. I made to the top second since Grover was always first. I had singed my shirt on the bottom so now my belly button showed. It was kind of awkward since I didn't like leaving my mid-section showing like this in front of so many boys. I retrieved my reppeling equipment from Grover and headed back down the wall. Then I yanked three times on the rope and it fell away from the top. No camper was allowed to use equipment on the way up, only on the way down.

When I got down to the bottom, Chase was waiting for me. He was grinning. He was always grinning now that he was here. I thought it was because he was enjoying himself but everybody kept saying it was because I was closer to him now. I denied it but I wasn't positive it wasn't true. Anyway, when I got down he waved me over and when I got there I kissed him on the cheek and said,"Hey, what's up?" He just stared at me for a second and I was like,"Hello? Earth to Chase. Earth to Chase?" That snapped him back to reality,"Huh waht sorry just thinking?" I laughed and said,"If we're dating you have to get used to me kissing you." I intertwined my hand with his and he smiled. I smiled and said,"So what's up?" He just said,"I was just wondering, if er," He scratched the back of his head nervously and I just said,"Well come, on spit it out!" Then he just blurted,"." I looked at him and said,"Okay can we bring the tape to normal speed please." He laughed nervously and slowed down," I was wondering if you wanted to go to the fireworks show with me." I smiled and said,"Of course. We're dating already remember?" We both laughed a little and then I said,"Well I need to head over to dog handling with Percy and Mrs. O' Leary. Talk to you later." Chase just nodded. His eyes were a long way off. I just silently laughed nad shook my head in mock sadness and said,"Ah boys. When will they ever learn to just act normal."


	16. Chapter 16

A month passed and finally it was time for the fireworks show. I found out it was the biggest dating event of the year and I was a little embaressed but at the same time I was glad that I was going with Chase and not some other guy. Plus this just solidified to the other guys at camp that I was taken and that I wasn't one to cheat. I decided to wear my turquiose ruffle shirt along with my leather jacket, my bullhide boots, and my nice jeans. After that, I decided to wear my matching teardrop earrings and necklace. Lastly I debated letting the Aphrodite girls torture me or just going as I was. Finally I decided I wanted to look my best for Chase and went down to the Aphrodite cabin. I knocked on the door and braced myself for the reak of designer perfume. The door was answered by a girl that I didn't recognize. She had blue eyes and brown hair. Then she said," Oh my gods! You're Chloe Jackson! I've been wanting to meet you! I'm Silena Beugard. Please come in. I can tell that you don't like designer perfume so I'll just get rid of that smell." She clapped her hands and the smell was gone. Then I just answered,"Calm down. I was just coming to see if you could give me some make-up advice. Nothing too noticable just some nuetral colors." She looked shocked,"Wow, I think you're brave for coming here considering how much you don't like the whole girls-throwing-themselves-at-boys-attitude that you seem to think we have. And anyway nuetrals will work best for your green eyes. So if you'll just sit back and relax I'll get to work. Oh, and we'll have to do something about that hair." I grimaced but let Silena work.

An hour later I was released from my captivity in the Aphrodite cabin. My hair was put up in a half ponytail and held in place with a saphire rhinestone clip. I had on a light dusting of make-up. Thank the gods it was Silena and not some other girl like Drew or something. Silena understood you just by looking at you.

So I was heading over to the Hermes cabin to meet Chase but he was already at the porch of the cabin waiting. He was wearing an orange polo shirt and some black jeans. He was also wearing some black and white converse sneakers. I saw his jaw drop when he saw me and I smiled. When I finally got up to the porch I made a twirling motion and said,"You like?" He just stood there gaping and I laughed. I finally said,"Good grief Chase. You really don't know how to act around a girl." Then he laughed and held out his arm. Then he said with a grin,"Shall we?" I looped my arm through his and grinned,"We shall."

When we got down to the beach we met up with Annabeth and Percy. They were the only ones not dressed up. I suddenly felt over dressed but then I looked at Chase and realized That I was doing it for him not for Percy or Annabeth, or anybody else for that matter. Then Percy asked kind of sternly,"So which one asked who?" I nearly laughed. Then Chase just sqeaked,"Me." I looked at Chase. Percy wasn't that scary. Then I looked at Percy and he was glaring Chase down. Then I said,"Percy!" Then Percy stopped and looked down at his sneakers. I had to stifle another laugh but Annabeth beat me to giggling and said,"And I thought I was the only who could make him do that. And the fact that a thirteen year old makes him do that. Ha! We've got a spot reserved farther down the beach. You can have it if you want. It's kind of private so that way you can still see the fireworks and yet not have to worry about your boy poperatzi." I said,"Thank you guys. You have no idea how much that would mean to me. Those boys only look at me like they're stripping me with their eyes. Disgusting! I swear if I didn't have some serious restraint, every one of them would be wounded in some fashion. and unable to attend the fireworks." Annabeth laughed and said,"I know that you must have some major restraint if you hadn't killed Percy when he came back. Seriously I would've killed him if I was you. But then again you do have _some_ restraint." I laughed and then said,"See you later then." and walked off down the beach with Chase in tow.

When we found the place it was shaded by a sprawling willow tree. I pulled Chase under it. Then we waited for the fireworks to begin. About five minutes later they did start. But about mid way through the fire works I was staring at Chase instead of the fireworks. When Chase started to look at me I looked away at the fireworks with my face burning and I was pretty sure that he could see my face was as red as a beet. As I was watching the fireworks I started to think about our kiss at the bottom of the lake. It was my first real kiss. And with the very guy I had hoped it would be with. I could feel Chase's eyes on me. I made me blush even harder. In my head I was thinking,_"Chloe Elane Jackson! Get a hold of yourself!"_ Finally I managed to calm down. Then I looked at Chase, thinking that he wasn't watching me. And he wasn't but the instant I moved he looked at me and said,"You've been staring at me all night. What's up?" I sighed and thought,_"Dang this guy's good!"_ And then said,"Just thinking about us. I mean we kissed at the bottom of a lake. Where does that leave us? Friends? BFGF? Honestly I'm scared. I mean I've already got a poperatzi that I don't want and apparently I'm already popular. Plus I'm the sister of the single most famous demigod of modern history. How much wierder can my life get?" Chase chuckled and said,"A lot wierder with you. But hey we've ot each other and that's what matters." I sighed and rested my head on his shoulder. He tensed then relaxed and I had to chuckle,"Chase relax we're dating now. I talked to my would be dad and he said it was fine for me to date early if it kept the other boys off of me." Chase really relaxed then and rested his head on mine. Then I felt a set of four eyes on me and said,"Connor, Travis, stop filming this before I come up there with my knife." I heard two loud gulps and some rustling. I laughed,"I have no reason why they are so scared of me." Chase just silently chuckled as I rested my head on his shoulder and then said,"You too aphrodite girls." A lot more rustling and gulping. I chuckled again and Chase just sighed. The rest of the fireworks continued uneventfully and then Chase and I went back to our rightful cabins but Chase walked me to mine first. At the door to my cabin Chase kissed me on the lips again and then said,"Goodnight chloe. And don't stop wearing your own clothes that you brought. I like you better in blue." I blushed and pecked him on the cheek. Then I whispered,"Goodnight Chase." and went into my cabin and shut the door. I made sure to close the curtains as I changed. It turned out that was my one mistake. When I was putting on my pajama pants a lap flicked on and sitting in a chair in the corner was...was... the kid who had first asked me out after my first capture the flag game. I quikly grabbed my robe and threw it on. This guy was a creep and a perv. I was going to feel humiliated if I went outside but then I remembered my knife on my stand and my 9mm also on my stand. I decided to grab my 9mm. Then I said,"Get out before I shoot you in a very painful nerve in the back of the calf muscle." He didn't move. I cocked the gun. I really didn't want to shoot this guy but he was about to get on my nerves. Then I said,"You got ten seconds before I fire this gun so you better get out before I permanently disable your right leg." That seemed to get him angry and he moved. But not towards the door. I kept my gun trained on the back of his right calf. He started to move towards me and I fired. I knew he was going to tell some fake story and I would probably get expelled from camp but if I didn't I was going to end up getting raped. The boy cried out in pain and almost fell to the floor before I caught him. I know you might be thinking why would I catch him when I just shot him in self defense? Well the truth of the matter is that I'm a softy and I couldn't bear to give him more pain when I just shot him in the leg to temporarely disable it. I actually lied to him thinking that that might scare him. Obvioulsy not. The wound would just hurt like hades for the next few months. I finished putting my pants on and then hauled the boy over my shoulder. I put my deer skin slippers on and hauled the boy to the infirmary.

When I got there I found none was there. So I just threw the boy on the bed and went to work bandaging his wound. The boy tried several attempts at trying to get at me but eventually I got him in some restraints. I hated to have to do it to anyone but it had to be done if I was going to get his wound bandaged. I made sure to put some solid pressure on the wound with the bandage. Then I told the boy,"I told you I would shoot you. Now I did lie about your leg being permanently disabled, but your leg will hurt like Hades for the next few months, but if you don't keep using it, it will atrophy and then you really won't be able to use it again. By the way what's your name? Or do i have to keep calling you boy and perv?" The boy said,"Alright, my name is Fierro." Then I said,"Alright Fierro. Who's your godly parent?" He answered,"Hephaestus." I responded,"Well you certainly know how to freak a girl out and be a perv." Fierro winced and said,"Look, I'm only 11. I have no experience whatsoever with girls. All the girls I've ever known have thought of me as a freak. Plus I always hit on girls that I already know are way out of my league." I let my mouth drop to the floor,"You're 11? You look more like my age. I would think that every thirteen year old girl in camp would be after you." He said,"I know and a lot of them were. But I kept giving them the cold shoulder hoping that you would notice me. Eventually they stopped coming after me." I looked down. I'd given so many others the cold shoulder. What if I had caused the same thing to happen to all the other guys who were after me? Then I steeled myself and said,"Fierro, you have got to stop obsessing about me. I'm already taken. The guy I was waiting for back at my home in texas turned out to be a half blood and he's here now. I'm dating him. Don't you see Fierro? While you're pursuing me, you're missing all your other options." He sighed and said,"Yeah I do. And now I won't even try to bug you again unless I need to talk. Which may be more often than not." I chuckled and said,"Anytime. just no more sneeking into my cabin. If Percy walks in there before me you're as good as dead." Fierro nodded and then I said,"This is gonna hurt a little." I had to apply a new bandage because the old one was already soaked. As I was tying the knot I had to yank it to keep the pressure applied. Fierro winced but didn't cryout. This was probably easy compared to getting shot. I told Fierro goodnight and then went back to my own cabin and changed into some clean pajamas. Again it was dark in the cabin and I assumed Percy was asleep. Again a lamp flicked on and in the same chair as Fierro sat Percy. I rolled my eyes and muttered,"What is it with boys and flicking lamps on?" Then Percy said,"Where were you? I was worried sick!" Then I muttered,"You sound like my mom." Apparently Percy heard the second one and chuckled,"Yeah I geuss I do. But still where were you?" I answered,"I had a rejected perverted boy to take care of." Percy seemed confused so I told him the entire story just like it happened. Then he said,"Oh OK. Well then in that case try to get to sleep as soon as possible. Since you were up late you're going to need all the sleep you can get. I've entered you in a competition of sword fighting. No firearms allowed. except for the final challenge. In which you aim at the target and whoever has the most accuracy wins. I also entered myself for the competition so you'd better practice up." I yelled shrilly in his ear,"WHAT!" You did that without my explicit permission! Percy you should know better than to do stuff like this to get on my bad side." Percy looked freaked out and said,"Chloe, please just calm down." I didn't know why he was so freaked out until I realized I had caused the entire lake to bend to my will and I was making it storm. I suddenly shut it off and fell to the floor. Then I started to cry,"I can't control myself or my powers. I'm going to cause the end of the world if I don't start to get control of myself. I'm so horrible. I'm a monster." Percy came running up to me and hugged me. I hugged him back whispered into his shirt,"I'm scared of myself." Percy just stroked my hair and whispered,"It gonna be alright. You'll be alright." over and over again until eventually I fell asleep.


	17. Chapter 17

**3 years later**

I woke up Monday morning. I groaned. I DID NOT want to get up. There was a plate of blue chocolate chip pancakes and some blue liquid. I figured Percy must have left it for me. I had probably missed breakfast. He had left a water lid I geuss you would call it, over them so that I could see what it was and yet it would keep the food warm. I took control of the water and moved it into the lake. Then I grabbed a fork and began to eat. They were the best things I had ever tasted.

When I finished eating I put on a plain blue t-shirt and some ripped up jeans. I put on my old boots and went to go practice with my 9mm. I was spot on every time. After about an hour of good practice I went and cleaned my gun. Then I headed over to sword practice. I met up with Percy there and thanked him for breakfast. But he told me that he didn't leave it. All he did was hold the water lid up with little bit of concentration until I woke up. Chase was the one who had left the pancakes and blue apple juice. So that's what it was. Then i grabbed my sword and knife from the armory and asked,"So ready to get your but kicked in this year's competition" Percy answered back,"It not me who's gonna get they're buts kicked" I went over to one of the practice dummies and hacked it to peices. I was angry because Percy only told me a week in advance instead of about three weeks, but I cooled myself down before I had another episode like 3 years ago. Finally I calmed myself down and said,"And you just now told me about the competition?" Percy held up his hands in surrender and said,"I just found out about it last night. Chiron only just anounced it. If you had stayed through the anouncements you would've known." I took a few deep breaths and then said,"Well then why don't we get to work? I'll be needing quite a bit of parctice if I'm going to be kicking your butt repeatedly." After that it was just a blur. I went into auto-pilot. Slash,whirl, duck, dodge, roll, sweep kick, parry, thrust. I kept beating Percy up. After about three hours we both stopped sparring. We were both dripping with sweat. I had accidentily cut Percy a few times and I got some bandages to fix him up. I bandaged his arm and he took care of the rest. I on the other hand had only on minor little nick on my arm. Of course both Chase and Percy fussed about it. I kept telling them I was fine but unfortunantly, Chase was better at verbal warfare than battlefield warfare. It ended with him bandaging my arm against my will and me having to sit still. Chase was wearing another orange muscle shirt. After 3 years of camp he had gotten a really ripped and now he had all muscle. But I wasn't going to let him win. Instead I waited until Chase finished with my arm and then I dropped a bubble of water on him. He looked up at me and I laughed. Then he smiled mischevously. I immediatly got suspicious. All of the sudden I was being hoisted onto somebody's back. I screamed a little and faught a little but then I stopped because I realized it was no use. I just used the person's back as an arm rest and rest my head in my hand. Then a strand of my black hair fell into my face. I thought, great now I feel like I'm in the shrek movie and I'm Fiona. I blew the strand of hair out of my face and just gave in to my fate. After about a minute of bumping on the persons back threw me into the lake and then dived in after I fell in. It was Chase. Who else? Then I made an air bubble. In the last three years a lot of things had changed. Chase's and mine's relationship had gotten a lot more serious. We were going out on actual dates. Fierro and I had gotten to be really good friends. Percy and Annabeth had gotten married. They were already getting ready to have their first kid. I had turned sixteen and I could cause my own hurricane. (Not that I wanted to.) I could also make my own water sword if I wanted to spar with one of the mermen in my fathers palace. He granted me 24/7 access. I had also learned to cause minor earth quakes to keep kids from getting the flag. I had gotten control of my temper. Chase had become a master thief at the camp store. When ever a bouqet of white roses went missing you imediatly knew it was Chase. I always told him it was sweet but that he had to return them. He was the only one allowed to play pranks on me. Chase had turned into one of the best field first-aid medics besides the apollo kids. In other words life was great.

Anyway, we were down at the bottom of the lake and I had made an air bubble. We sat there for a second before I said,"OK, what do you want to talk about? Whenever you dump me in the lake it pretty much means that you want to talk." Chase sighed. Then he said,"I know that we're both only sixteen but we've been dating for three years. I can wait another four years if I have to, but I want to know that you'll do the same for me." Chase pulled out a little band of silver with a little saphire in the center and two even smaller diamonds on either side. I said,"Chase you know I can't marry you at this age." Chase just said,"I know. I'm just asking you to take this ring as a promise that you will wait until you can marry me. Just wait four years. That's all I'm asking." I pretended to consider it before I said anything just to make him agonize a little longer. I had moved the bubble underneath the pier so the campers couldn't see us. I made a little water lamp thing so we could see each other. Then I said,"Yes. I'll wait four more years to marry you. and only you." Chase smiled and tried to put the ring on my finger. It was a little too big for me to wear so I said,"Put it on my necklace." I unclasped my necklace so that he could put the ring on it. Then I held it out to him,"You put the necklace back on. After all it partly belongs to you now." I turned around and held up my hair so that he could put it on. He draped the necklace on my neck and latched the clasp. Then I turned back around and smiled at him. Then I kissed him. And not on the cheek like I usually did. Finally I broke away for air. Then I said,"Hang on a second. I remembered something." I reached out my senses to find any shaped plastic or metal. I found four or five cameras. I pulled them in towards me with the current. Then I waved into the camera and made my water sword. Then I lined all the cameras up and cut through them in one strong slice. I let my sword dissolve and let the cameras sink too the bottom of the lake. Then I said,"Now where were we?" Chase said,"Um, kissing?" I laughed and kissed him again, just a peck. He kissed me back. I know you boys think this is disgusting but this is what had actually happened. Then I said,"I wanna show you something." Then I willed the current to take us further and further out. Eventually we were out in a coral reef area. Sharks were swimming everywhere. I smiled and talked to them all,"Hey, Fin! What's up Shark bait? How you doing Martha? The kids still little pests?" On and on it went. Chase looked terrified. I laughed. Shark bait brushed up against him and Chase let out a muffled scream. I chuckled again and held his hand out while holding it. Shark bait brushed up again and he was making his low rumbling purr thing. Chase looked shocked. Then he laughed a little and said,"He purrs like a cat." I responded,"I thought you'd like it." Suddenly Shark bait came up to us and kept swimming, each time putting his dorsal fin in Chase's hand. Then realized what he was saying. Then I told Chase,"Shark bait would be willing to give us a ride back to camp if you wanted." Chase hopped on Shark bait the next time he swam around,"Does that answer your question?" I laughed and took hold of Shark bait's dorsal fin. He shot forward like a cannon ball from a cannon.

A few minutes later we were back at camp. Everyone was still waiting on the peir. When the dorsal fin first appeared everyine freaked out and drew their weapons. I thrust my hand up out of the water and held up my hand in a stop signal and then pointed at myself. Then I made an 'OK' sign. They understood and relaxed. When we finally broke the surface People were astounded to see me and Chase riding a Bull shark. They are known as the single most aggressive shark in the ocean. I thanked Shark bait and he swam back towards the deep. A lot of the campers were confused when I called the shark Shark bait. But I just pretened not to notice and intertwined my hand with Chase's and started to walk down the pier with him. When we made it to our little spot on the beach underneath the willow tree. Chase got really sappy last year and carved a heart into the tree with the inscription C+C 4evr. I sat underneath it and Chase did the same. Whenever I'm thinking about something I start to mess with my camp necklace. Apparently I was doing that when I sat down because Chase said,"What's on your mind?" I sat there for a moment longer before I said,"It's just, four years is a long time to wait." Chase just answered,"Percy and Annabeth waited six years." "I know it just seems so long especially since we've got to keep every single monster at bay all the time. What if I die before we can legally get married. I don't want to leave you alone. I don't want you to turn bitter over my death if I die. I want you to promise me that you won't do anything stupid if I die. Period. Promise me." Chase looked at me and seemed to understand that I needed this assurance,"I promise that I will not do anything 'stupid' as you put it if you die."

Suddenly I heard a low canine growl, and it wasn't Mrs. O' Leary's. I instantly pulled my 9mm off my thigh and cocked the gun. I turned and instinctivley ducked, just in time. A huge dark paw swept over my head. I fired my gun twice. One bullet for the head. One for the heart. When I turned around smiling at Chase I was shocked. Chase was lying in the sand unconcious. I hauled him over my shoulder and jogged up the hill to the infirmiry and explained what happened to the healers. They said they couldn't do anything for him so I took him out of the infirmiry. I know sounds stupid, right? But I had an idea. I brought him back to the beach and set him in the tide. I shaped it into a cocoon like thing from his chest down. Then I tried to use my powers to heal him. I figured since water healed me, why couldn't I transfer some of that energy to someone else? It worked. Chase's heart beat became stronger and he didn't look quite as pale. All the sudden he gasped for air and tried to sit up. I gently pushed him back down to the sand and he cooperated when he saw I was working on healing him. He winced though and grabbed his mid-section as he was leaning back down. Definantly broken ribs. I gently felt his ribs and felt that at least three of them were broken. I focused on one rib at a time and mended them.

When I finally had them all fixed back in place I said,"Don't you ever do that to me again. Ya hear? I wouldn't be able to stand it if you died. Don't you ever scare me like that again!" as I pulled him into a hug. He chuckled,"Okay I get it. You're mad. I won't do that again. But you need to be more careful too." I pulled away in mock frustration,"Oh so now it's about me?" We both smiled at each other and went to find a new little spot. We found a nice little secluded crevice in a rock and went in. When we were fully in and looked around, it was cavern with luminescent moss and algea. It seemed completely dark from the outside. Then I realized it would be really hard to get out of here if we got trapped so I told Chase,"Stand behind me. I need to adjust the doorway a little." Chase understood and held onto my waist. I used my powers to widen the door way just enough to where we could easily get out and yet people on the outside couldn't see in. Then I said to him,"There. Perfect." I kissed Chase on the lips. just a peck though. Then I hugged him. "Don't scare me like that ever again." Chase hugged me back with his strong arms,"I promise that I won't ever do that again." Then I whispered into his shirt,"I love you." He whispered back,"I love you, too." he stayed silent for a second then said," So, marry me in four years?" I answered,"Yes." and that was that.

**A/N: I know this chapter was cheesy but hey that's me! please review! try to review every chapter to let me know what you think.**


	18. Chapter 18

A week later it was competition day. The whole camp watched. That is the rest of the campers that weren't participating in the competition. There were about fifty campers in the competition total. 25 rounds of multiple events would be carried out until there were only two competiters remained. Then a final duel would begin to determine who was the champion. I would be doing the mounted and non mounted dueling. I had tried to train Arion for this but he already knew how to do it. The first round of mounted duels would be beginng in a half an hour. I was going over the last of Arions tack. I decided to stick with a western saddle even though it wouldn't do much to keep me from falling it was still easier for me to use.

Thirty minutes later I was ready in my light armor of a breat plate and helmet. I never wore full armor in the competition. The conch horn blew and the first round of mounted dueling began. It was an easy match. I didn't even break a sweat. Others went on after me and they were all over quickly. The first day of competition was over. It had been narrowed down to 25 competitors myself included in that number.

The next day was all about hand-to-hand armed and unarmed combat. I would be starting out in the unarmed division. I don't know why but I always came out of there without a scratch. Anyway, there I was getting ready. Putting on some fingerless fist fighting gloves. It was an especially hot summer day today so I decided to wear a sphagetti strap tank top. I'll admit I didn't like showing that much skin but such is life. When I came out ready I was faced with a big beefy hephaustus kid. He was at least twice as tall as me and looked twice as strong. I was a scrawny sixteen year old girl. I could take this guy no problem. All I had to do was get him off his feet for at least five seconds and he was out. I would usually rely on anger to make it through the fist fighting challenge but I decided to go with something a little different. I would use the fact that I was a girl to my advantage. In other words, I was going to use mental warfare. I adjusted my gate to wear it was more feminine and less masculine. I walked right to the center of the arena to meet him then I said,"You wouldn't harm an unarmed girl would you?" I batted my eyelashes at him and he seemed fazed for a moment and then shook his head. I decided to come on a little more strongly. I said,"You're kinda cute. I kind of have a thing for big guys like you." At that he totally fazed out for a good thirty seconds. All I needed was ten. I dead legged his right leg and swept his feet out from under him. Then I planted my knee on his chest and waited five good seconds. Then I said to Chiron, who was serving as referee,"I believe I have conclu-" Suddenly I was jerked back by some unknown force. I was thrown on the ground and suddenly there was a big foot on my chest. I grabbed the foot and twisted it quickly until I heard a snap. Then I released it and rolled out from under the foot. I vaulted myself up off the ground to come face to face with-well it sure wasn't that hephaustus kid anymore-Ares. How the hades did he get in here? Still, he almost had me in a sleeper hold. I ducked as he reached at me with his unhuman speed. Later after the fight I would ask myself how I had done that but right at that very moment I was just concerned with staying alive. You see, breaking the god of war's foot isn't the best thing to do if you don't want to make him angry. He still complemented me on my fighting but it was more resentful than respectful. Apparently he tried to toy with my emotions but it wasn't working because he suddenly winced and said,"Man punk! You've got some serious mental resolve!" I chuckled an evil laugh that even scared me a little and said,"Wanna guess why?" Then I vaulted up onto the god of jerks' back and got him in a pretty dang tight sleeper hold. I was actually straining. Finally though, the god of war passed out cold and I said,"Chiron I believe I have just won two matches so if you don't mind I'm going to hit the you, I don't know put him in a straight jacket or something? Just until I'm rested up." Chiron chuckled and said,"Yes Chloe. I'll see you in the morning."

When I got to my cabin Chase was sitting on the porch and he didn't look happy. I walked up to him and said,"Hey, Chase. What's wrong?" He looked at me and said in a mock girly voice_,"I kind of have a thing for big guys like you." _I sighed. Every year we went through the same thing. Then I said,"Chase I was using mental warfare. For some reason guys just faze out when I complement them. Now I use it to my advantage with huge guys like that. Otherwise you know I would get crushed. And give me a break, I just faught the god of war one-on-one in unarmed combat for Zeus sake! You have to learn that I'm not going to go cheat on you with some hephaustus guy. You know I only have a thing for hermes kids. And moreover just one hermes kid. You." He looked at me and caved,"Alright I see your point. I will be dueling you tomorrow for the one of the final four hand-to-hand armed combat duels. If I were you I wouldn't take it easy on me. I've been practicing." I laughed and said,"Yeah sure. I'll remember that." We looked at each other and smiled. I darted off towrds the beach with Chase in pursuit. I dived into the ocean and waited for Chase. But suddenly his look turned horror striken and backed away from the surf. I looked behind me and there right in my face was...my dad. I sighed in exasperation,"Alright what did you make him see this time?" Posieden just looked like it was no big deal and said,"Oh just a sea serpent." I looked at him and saaid,"DAAaad! Why do you keep doing that! It takes him weeks just to get back in the canoe lake, much less the ocean. Stop scaring him off!" Posieden actually back of a little. "Okay fine. No need to be rude." I smiled smugly then I said,"Well I think that considering that I had to fight a god and a huge hephaustus kid three times my size I think I have a right to be a little curt with people and even gods." Posieden said,"I can see your point but still. You don't need to take your stress out on me. We need to talk."

**authors note.**

**sorry guys. I know it was a short chapter but i just finished dividing up what used to be a huge first chapter. hope this is better for yall.**


	19. I have the worst luck

"What do we have to talk about that was so important that you had to scare Chase off?" I asked irritably. Posieden answered,"The atlantians are getting nervous. They still think that your powers are still evolving. They're worried that you won't be able to control your powers." I sighed and said,"I'll come down and reassure them that I have contro-" Suddenly I got a splitting headache and I put my hands to my forehead to steady myself. My dad said,"Are you alright?" I shook my head no and walked back to the beach and sat down. After a few minutes the headache had gone away. I stood back up and said,"Alright dad. I'll be down in a little while. I just gotta tell Chase where I'm going. See you in ten." Posieden nodded and then said,"Also I'm worried about you marrying a 'certain young man' that you barely know." I playfully punched my dad in the arm and said," for yur information I have known a 'certain young man' since I was two. I am going to marry him. Nobody can change my mind. No atlantian, New Yorker, citizen of Derby, or even god can change my mind about it. end of discussion." I glared at my dad and he said,"Alright fine. Just watch your back. There are a lot of boys upset that you're completely taken now." and dissolved in sea spray.

As I was walking back towards the hermes cabin to let Chase know where I was going, out of the blue a pair of arms- not Chase's-grabbed me from behind and then spun me around to where their hands were on my hips and I was facing my captor. I looked up into the eyes of Fierro. I tried to back away from Fierro's grasp but he was stronger than he looked. I squirmed for a minute more and then sighed in defeat. "Fierro, what do you want? And could you please stop flirting with me. I have a boyfriend and I'm already promised to him by my own free will." Fierro looked at me in such a way that it made me shiver in fear. If you get what I'm saying, it was like he was stripping me with his eyes. Fierro looked me over one last time and then said,"I can't-won't let you marry that pranking, snooping son of hermes. He's a good for nothing scum bag that doesn't deserve you."

"What and you do?" I replied vhemenantly. I tried to hide the fact that the gears in my head were turning. I was analyzing my advantages and dis-advantages. Fierro's grip was on my hips not my arms. Rookie mistake. Quick as lightnig I grabbed my knife from it's sheath and moved it towards Fierro's throat. Fierro was quicker on the uptake of what I was doing and brought of his gauntleted forearm. It deflected my blow and almost made me dislocate my shoulder. I heard a cabin door slam and heard footsteps running towards me but I didn't care. I had to stay focused or I was going to be dead meat. Unfortunantly, Chase chose that moment to call out my name and I turned my head. In the split second that I had before Fierro wasn't distracted anymore I turned back around and dead legged his right leg. The same leg I had shot him in. Apparently it was still kind of painful because I missed my mark and instead hit the spot where I had shot him a few months back. He cried out in pain and fell to one knee clutching his right leg. In an instant I planted my knee on his chest and put my knife at his throat. Then I practically yelled in his face,"I thught you moved on. I am NOT in love with you. I'm in love with Chase! Got it? If you wanna try kiddnapping and changing my mind about marrying Chase you should at least use the two non fried brain cells in that head of your's to actually come up with a plan! Now leave me and Chase alone!" I had never exploded like this before but I was really upset. Then I remembered my episode three years back and calmed myself back down. I got off Fierro and he ran away like a scolded puppy. I brushed my hands off and resheathed my knife. I decided it would be best if I just simply told Chase where I was going and then left so that's exactly what I did.

I walked down to the beach after I told Chase where I was going and dived into the water. At first I just swam to clear my head and then I swam towards my father's palace. I swam for about an hour before I finally saw the light from the palace up ahead. Only it seemed a lot brighter than it usually did. I ignored my feeling of unease, which just goes to prove that I really am related to the seaweed brain otherwise known as Percy Jackson. When I walked into the throne room I should've been vaporized by the sight that I saw. I saw my dad in his true form and some other guy fighting each other. I don't know what happened after I blacked out from rage and started towards my father's attacker.

**The Awakening**

When I woke up, I have absolutley no clue how much later, I had the familiar feeling of a split head. I looked around and first took in my surroundings. I was in a guest room in the palace. Then I looked at the people surrounding me. My father was standing over me and to my surprise he had tears in his eyes and when he talked his voice sounded a long way off. Suddenly he said,"Alright you may take her body and bury her now." I was confused but I didn't want to get buried so I managed to croak out in a raspy voice,"Dad?" My father looked at me like I had just dropped from space, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. Haha, I geuss you can't change the reaction to shock in this family. Then Posieden seemed to find his voice and he asked shakily,"Chloe? But how-I thought you were dead." I sighed and craoked with a lot of effort,"Maybe my pulse was just really weak. Even too weak for you to feel." He sighed and said,"Perhaps. Although I have to admit that if you hadn't come when you did I most likley would have lost the battle. Still seeing me in my true form should have vaporized you. If you hadn't woken up when you did you probably would now be on your way to an underwater graveyard. How are you feeling?" I croaked out,"Like I just got boiled in acid, dipped in ice cold water, and got a broken skull all at the same time." Posieden chuckled and said,"That is to be expected. You did just survive seeing a god in their true form." I chuckled a dry cracky laugh and then I asked for a glass of water. Posieden gave me a glass of water and I drank it slowly. I looked down at my body to see that the burns were already healing. I could now move my arms and legs I just couldn't use them yet. They were a little weak yet. I was able to sit up in another half hour. I asked my dad how long I had been out and he answered me about a week. I hollered in his face before I could stop myself,"A week? Why the Hades didn't you wake me up sooner?" Then I realized what i just did and quickly apologized. Posieden just shrugged it off saying it was understandable.**( A/N sorry of i suck at personofying gods but hey, i like 2 make people look nicer than they really are...)** Then I remembered Chase. He must be worried sick. I quickly excused myself so that I could get dressed. Then I realized something, if I survived seeing a god in their true form I was even more of a threat than Percy or Thalia or even Nico Di Angelo, who I still had yet to meet. I finished having a fight with my clothes to get them on and then went to my door and opened it. Thing is when I did, Percy was standing there talking to dad. I walked up to him and asked,"Percy? What are you doing here?" He turned to me and looked like he was seeing a ghost. Then he said,"No way. Even I wouldn't have survived that. It can't be real..." I put my hand on his shoulder and smiled reassuringly at him. Then my smile turned into a smirk as I said,"Yeah good to see you too, Kelp head." Percy chuckled and shook his head. Then he said,"Yeah you wouldn't be saying that if you were dead. And to answer your original question I _was _here for the funeral. But looks like I don't have to burn my only sister's shroud after all. I would have turned all mushy and cried." I laughed and punched him in the arm. I nearly cracked my hand because I forgot about that stupid curse of Achilles. I winced a little and shook my hand. I muttered under my breath,"_Vlacas._" I wasn't sure where the greek came from but I'm pretty sure I just called myself an idiot in the said language. Percy chuckled and said,"You are always rushing into things."

"Oh and you aren't?" I retorted

"No I'm not. You could have been killed!" he said back. I chuckled.

"I just got back to walking after seeing dad in his true form and we're already bickering." I shook my , Percy held up the one thing I personaly was afraid of-Pink. I hate the color. It makes me sick. I backed up and said,"alright, alright. No need to get physical." Percy chuckled and said,

"You really hate pink don't you?"

"You think?" I said back. He laughed and put away the pink fabric.

An hour later I told my father good-bye and swam back to camp. Percy followed me a little later. When I came back to camp, everyone looked depressed and were all dressed in black. I guess Percy could've stood to mention that everyone was in mourning over me. Ugh! Stupid, dumb, Seaweed Brain of a brother! When Travis Stoll, who was apparently keeping watch for Percy, saw me walk out of the ocean he Jumped down from the tree he was in and stood there in utter disbelief for a second. Then in another second I was getting crushed by a hug which was kind of wierd considering that we weren't real close or anything. I finally managed to choke out,"Travis please stop suffocating. I don't want to almost die again only this time by way of hug." Travis laughed and let go. He started to walk away and then I said,"Oh and Travis. Give me back my wallet before I make you." Travis gulped and tossed me my wallet. Then he ran off. Presumably to tell everyone I was still alive. Blabber mouth. I walked to the Hermes cabin and knocked on the door. A sibling of Chase's answered the door and gasped. I smiled and then said,"Can I see Chase or do I have to wait another week for him to stop-" Suddenly I heard a loud banging noise from inside the cabin and I knew the sound all to well. It was Chase banging his head on a wall. Then I raised my voice and repeated,"Or do I have to wait another week for him to stop banging his head on walls and creating holes?" Chase's sibling laughed and let me in. Chase had apparently heard me because the banging stopped and when I walked in there and saw him his eyes were puffy and red, his forehead was brown and red. He had done a lot of banging his head on walls. I laughed and said,"I thought I made you promise not to do anything stupid if I died. And that," I paused gesturing toward his forehead and the wall,"is stupid." He laughed and then ran to me and hugged me. I hugged him back glad that he was back in my arms. Then I said,"Told you I'd be back." I felt him laugh a little and then he pulled back. I looked at him and then his forehead,"If I actually die, don't bang your head on walls. You look terrible." He laughed again and said,"Okay. Anyway how did you survive? You your dad in his freakin' true form!" I laughed and said,"Hello, I'm me."

The next month went by uneventfully. The tournament had continued without me and Percy won. Much to my displeasure. The only reason he did win was because I wasn't there to whup his butt. After the tournament his ego got inflated about ten times the normal size. And I thought his regular ego was bad enough. Ugh! You should see him now! So he now held the title of tournament champion. Well he not going to keep that long. Anyway, life continued on regularly from there. Well, as regular as it ever get for a child of the big three. At the end of summer I went back to Derby. Little did I know how much harder life was about to get...

**Hey peeps. sorry it took so long to update. I'm still prety new to so I was having trouble figuring out how to upload a single stupid chapter but no I got it figured out thanx to the ever present well of knowledge A.K.A the internet. so there \'s chapter 2. I will update asap when i can. texan4life out!**


	20. I get recruited by wolves

I was sitting on the porch of the house being bored out of my mind. I tried to carve piece of wood. Let's just stick with that it did NOT go well. I got up out of my seat and started pacing back and forth on the porch. I eventually decided to go into the woods. I saddled up Arion and kicked him into a trot. I got down to the woods and decided to practice my throwing with my knife. I picked a tree just to my right. But instead i felt a presence behind me and threw my knife in the direction of the threat. When I turned around though it was someone-actually _something_- that I never thought I'd see again. It was Lupa and her pack of wolves. Luckily Lupa was faster than my flying knife which currently thudded into a tree to her left. Lupa growled at me,"_You've gotten better. Have you been training with other demigods perhaps?"_ I spoke back to her careful to gage my tone so as not to show weakness."Yes. I have been training with my brother at Camp Half-Blood." Lupa growled at me again,_"Camp Half-Blood. I see. Still they have helped you to fine tune your skills. For that I must thank them. Stil you need to come with me. Camp Jupiter is in danger. I already knew you were the child of the prophecy when I first saw you as a mere pup. I came back to you to ask for assistance."_ I responded,"Of course. I will come with you. When do we leave?"Lupa snarled in my mind,_"Immediatly. pack your neccesities and then meet me back here." _I kicked Arion into his sonic run and he leapt away from Lupa and her wolves.

I reached the house about thirty seconds later. There are always advantages to having a super fast horse. I ran inside and grabbed a spare changed of clothes, a few golden drachma's for I'ming people to let them know where I am, my 9 mil and my ring/sword. I had it specially made in the forges for times such as this when I would need a sword on short notice. I had it magicaly enchanted like riptide so that if I lost it, it would reappear in my pocket. I would just have to touch the rhinestone in the center for it to transform into a three foot sword of celestial bronze. I strapped on my thigh holster for my 9 mil and i put on my ring/sword. Then i ran back outside with a saddle bag on my shoulder and mounted Arion. Mind you, I got all this around and back out of the door in about sixty seconds.

I kicked Arion into his sonic run and he shot away from the house hopefully not shattering to many windows. I got back to the woods in a matter of seconds. Lupa and her wolves barked in alarm and Lupa scolded me snarling,"_Dont' do that Chloe!" _ I just shrugged indifferently and said,"You wanted me to be quick didn't you?" She grumbled and then ran away at super speed. I followed her on Arion.

Five hours. That's how long it took to get to Camp Jupiter. That's how long I had to sit in a western saddle while holding on for dear life. When We finally got there we actually had to wait on Lupa to appear. Apparently we had gotten ahead of her and her pack. A few minutes later Lupa arrived. I looked down at the Camp and they were in battle for their lives. I wanted to charge down there but with how worn out Arion was he wouldn't be much good to me."_Hey! i can stil run normal horse speed!"_ I said to him,"That's just it Arion. I need your super speed to keep me alive. Just rest for a little while. I'll try to help as much as I can until then. When you feel ready find me inside the camp." I ran down the hill to help but was pulled back by a set of canine teeth catching my t shirt. I was yanked back and landed flat on my back. I immediatly jumped to my feet and glared at Lupa. I snarled at Lupa,**(A/N:No pun intended)**"What'd you do that for?" Lupa glared back at me and said,"_Do really think it is wise to go into battle completly unprotected? I pulled you back to give you armor." _I sighed and then I asked,"Wait then where's the armor?" Suddenly Lupa lunged at my throat. I narrowly doged her jaws and yelled at her,"Hey! what are you doing?" Lupa merely attacked again. This time I was ready. I pressed the rhinestone on my ring and it sprang into full form. I sliced at her and grazed her shoulder. I didn't want to hurt her to bad so i just aimed for her shoulder to slow her down. She whined a little at the pain and then turned on me again and growled,_"Run child. I cannot control my own body. I don't know who has the power to control me but you must run. Quickly mount up and save the camp. You are ready. Even your brother, Percy Jackson would not have been able to wound me with such precission."_ I nodded once, mounted Arion and then charged down the hill to save the camp.

I entered the battle to see that many of the campers were dead. A friend of mine, named Jason who occasionaly visits Camp half-blood and who helped me in my first game of capture the flag, was laying on the ground wounded severly. I ran to him and healed him with the water I had in a canteen. While I was healing him his gaze looked right behind me in horror. I didn't even bother to turn around. I already knew there was a monster right behind me and I just turned my sword so that the pommel was closest to my thumb. Then I stabbed backward and heard a yelp. I looked behind me briefly and saw a hellhound disintegrate. I turned back to Jason and asked,"You okay?" Jason seemed to find his voice and said,"Yeah. Thanks. You need to be more careful though because you don't have any armor." I nodded. Jason managed to get to his knees and then finally stand up. He continued to fight and I moved to continue fighting as well.

My mind went on auto pilot as I whirled through the ranks of monsters. Slash, shoot, dodge, deflect, roll, kick. I kept fighting until there weren't any monsters willing to cross my path. I felt the clip in my 9 mi refill. I held my 9 mil in one hand and my sword in the other. I was breathing hard but not to hard thanks to the strict conditioning of camp. I waited for one monster to lower their guard to where I had a clear shot. Finally an inexperienced one lowered their shield to see why the battle field had gone quiet. I fired at him. Then the rest of the monster army charged me. I slashed and hacked at them the best that I could to protect myself, but there were to many. I realized there was only one other option...Earthquake. I gathered all the strength I had left for a final stand and yelled at the top of my lungs. The ground shook. cracks opened up in the ground. Wait cracks? I don't have the ability to make cracks. Nico! He must be the one causing the cracks. When a column of monsters fell i saw him. A guy dressed in all black and an aviators jacket. He grinned and nodded. I smiled and nodded my thanks back. Then I felt light headed. I kept up the earthquake up for a few more seconds and then i shut it off. I didn't pass out this time, thank gods, but i did stumble for a second before somebody caught me. I looked up to see who caught me and found that Jason had caught me. I tried to stand up straight but pain shot up from my ankle. I looked at it to notice that it was twisted at and odd angle. I smiled a thanks to Jason and then asked him,"Why aren't you still fighting?" He looked at me clearly perplexed and said,"You and Nico just took care of the entire army. The battle is over. We won. I now know never to cross you when you're near a fire arm, or for that matter a sword." I laughed at the fact that he tried to make a joke at the end of a battle. I groaned as freash pain shot through my body and I said,"Take me down by the ocean. I'll heal quicker and easier there than if I stuck in a stuffy infimary." Jason laughed at my insult to the infirmary and then set off towards the west side of camp.

When we got to the water's edge I told him to let go of me so that I could sit down. I willed the water to heal me and had to get from screaming at the pain of my leg being set into place by the water healing me. After the water finished healing me I stood up full and straight as if I hadn't just broken my leg. I sighed in contentment and then I walked back to Camp Jupiter. I knew I wasn't welcome because of my heritage so I just headed for the camp gate.

Turns out, Nico had the same idea and as a result I ran into him at the gate. _Literally._ I crashed into Nico and went sprawling. I got up and dusted myself off. Then I offered my hand to Nico to help him up. He grasped it firmly and I hefted him up. I started to apologize,"I'm sorry I wa-" Nico cut me off and said,"It's okay. I wasn't watching where I was going either." I just had to say at that,"Well, someone likes to make assumptions." I raised an eyebrow at him. He was about to say something else but then stopped when he looked up. I stood there analyzing him. Now that I could see him clearly and he wasn't all the way across a battlefield, he had disshevled hair and brown eyes that looked kind of sad and well, dead. Nico kept staring and I waved my hand in front of his face. No response. So I slapped him. He snapped out of his daze and I said,"Would you PLEASE not stare? It's wierd and it makes me extremely uncomfortable. Plus I'm already dating and my boyfriend's a son of hermes. So don't flirt or stare at me unless you want to either find your face covered in make-up, glued to your pillow or bashed in. Got it?" Nico was still rubbing his cheek and glaring at me so I said,"Actually those would be things I would do. You don't want to know what Chase would do to you. Probably things far worse than what I would do." Nico's eye's widened. But he wasn't looking at me he was looking at something behind me. I rolled my eye's and told him to duck. Then while I was ducking I pulled out my 9 mil and pulled the trigger. Whatever it was that was about to attack me didn't stand a chance. Then I looked back at Nico. He was still cowering in a ducked position. I rolled my eye's again and dragged him into a standing position. Boys. Always so annoying. I dragged Nico out of the gate and met up with Arion. I asked him for a ride back to long island and he readily agreed, but he would have to rest by the time they reached Kansas City, Missouri. I agreed to his terms and mounted up on the saddle. Nico was afraid Arion would run away but I assured him he wouldn't. Then I got tired of Nico's constant banter so I just pulled him up behind me on Arion. Nico yelped as I pulled him up behind me and i chuckled. Then I kicked Arion into an all out run. My ears popped and I let out a shout of excitement. Nico must've thought I was crazy but I didn't care.

We made Missouri in about two and a half hours give or take. We decided to rest at a remote little hotel with a horse hitch. I found it a little suspiscious but of course, I didn't listen to my instincts. That proves just how much like my brother I really am. I seriously should've listened this time.

I walked in and got a room. They gave me the room key to room 323. I shivered at the number. It was the same number as the room that I stayed in at the hospital after my accident. I shook it off and brought Nico inside. I gave him a key to the room and then I went to take the saddle bag off Arion. Then I took care of Arion's tack. I lugged his saddle and bridle up to the room and collapsed on the couch. I was also silently offering the bed to Nico. He finally realized I was offering it to him after about an hour and took the bed. I took a quick five minute shower and changed into my spare set of clothes. I took out the hide-a-bed from the couch and put the set of sheets supplied by the hotel on it. I grabbed one of the two pillows that Nico had under his head and threw it on the hide-a-bed. Then I found the tv and turned the tv on to national geographic. Nico groaned and said, "Out of all the channel's on tv and you choose national Geographic?" I responded to that with, "One, you sound like my brother. Two, this channel's interesting." Nico rolled his eyes and said, "I do not sound like Percy." Immediately I was on my guard because 1) I had never meet Nico before the battle at Camp Jupiter. 2)I hadn't told him anything about me or my family. And 3) Usually if somebody knows something about you and or your family they are typically a monster.

I grabbed my knife from it's sheath and got ready to throw it. I glared hard at Nico and said, "How do you know about me since I never even told you my name?" Nico seemed kind of scared but he responded, "I'm the son Hades. Plus, I'm the only one Percy told about you." I was stunned. Why would Percy keep me a secret from everybody but Nico? If anything Nico would be the worst to tell. 'Course Nico is also one of the best to tell because he can keep a secret if his life is threatened. When I get beck to camp I am going to have a serious talk with my brother. Great I'm starting to sound like my mom.

I resheathed my knife and continued watching National Geographic. I still kept an eye on Nico though. I eventually fell asleep I don't know how much later with national geographic still blaring. I woke up in the middle of the night to the building rumbling. I tried to use my powers to calm the earthquake but they didn't work. Then I tried to just make a little bubble of water since that was the first and most simple thing for me to do. It didn't work. It seemed like somehow, the room was suppressing my abilities. I quickly gathered my things and exited the room. When I got out to the hall though, there was a monster. I mentally cursed. I should've known it wouldn't be this easy to travel with two demigods of the big three. Then I began to notice familiar features about the monster. It seemed to be part human but mostly monster. I noticed the sad brown, the disheveled brown hair, and last but not least a torn up aviator's jacket.

**A/N: DUN-DUN-dun! Cliffy! Sorry guys I just love to write cliffy's. plus it make's it easier to come up with more story if I have something to start writing** **off of.**


	21. surprises and blackouts

I stood stock still in shock for a moment before I finally snapped out of it. I said,"Nico! Chill out! If there's any of you left in there, fight this, whatever it is. Whatever turned you into this, you have to fight it! Fight it Nico! Fight it!" The face of the monster seemed to shift into one of confusion and then it shrank a little, "That's it Nico! Keep fighting! Push through like I know you can. I've seen you do it before! Show this thing that it can't control you!"

I you're wondering why I didn't try to cut him at all, it was because at the moment if I tried to cut him, he would dissolve into dust and his soul would be sent to Tartarus. I did not want that. He was a good traveling companion and a good friend no matter how odd.

The monster shrank even more until now it was just Nico. I quickly grabbed a blanket from the room and then I wrapped it around him and we ran out of the building before it collapsed on us. I ran to Arion and brought a spare change of clothes that doubled as my pajama's since they really belonged to Percy. I tossed them at Nico and said," Change into these. They belonged to Percy. I figure they'll fit you fine. And if they don't fit perfectly, tough luck." Nico chuckled and said," You Texans really are the hard-core type, aren't you?" I scoffed at him and said,"Don't make me regret not slashing you to dust." I heard him gulp and I hid a smirk. Then I got on Arion and pulled Nico up on him and spurred him back toward Camp half-blood.

We reached Camp a little before sunset and I went to see Chase. I went to the Hermes cabin and opened the door only to find the guy that I thought that I loved, sucking face with another Aphrodite slut. As you can imagine I was pissed and heart-broken. I stormed into the cabin, and pulled the slut away from Chase. I punched her square in the jaw and then whipped around on Chase before he even had time to process what was happening and I slapped him hard in the face. I yelled at him and said,"You cheating, LYING, SON OF A BITCH!" Then I walked out of the cabin and started to walk to the dining hall, but right as i was entering the dining hall my legs gave out on me, and I couldn't do anything about it. When my head it the ground I heard a sharp crack and then I blacked out.

**Hey guys it's me. sorry i haven't updated in forever been really busy with school even in the summer cause i am hoemschooled. you guys must hate me for all these short chapters with big cliffy's. so what do you guys think is going to happen now? sorry for the language. but in any case, didn't see that one coming did you? please comment and review! give me your ideas. i love seeing the suggestions and i love to get my reader's opinion's on my stories.**


	22. WHAT?

Five years later

Percy's pov

Today is the five year anniversary of when Chloe went into a coma. I'm hoping that someday soon she'll wake up. I need her to wake up. She's all I have left of my mortal blood family. My mom died last years and well, my dad's a big three god so that's shot to Hades. But, I still have Annabeth and our now two kids. I just wish Chloe would wake up. I visit her in the infirmary every birthday and every anniversary, hoping that she will wake up. Chloe has pretty much been forgotten by that bastard otherwise known as Chase Meyer. And now Chloe has become the dark secret of camp that only the senior counselor's and the people that knew her know about and that no one ever talks about.

I looked down at Chloe and said," Come on Chloe, wake up! It's been five years, you're twenty one now! You've missed out on so much. Getting your driver's license, turning eighteen, having your first drink. And you need to wake up so you can catch up. Besides I miss getting my butt kicked by someone other than Annabeth. My ego could use some deflating and I've practically become a drill sergeant while you've been gone." Suddenly I heard a chuckle emanate from her and her eyes opened. She tried to talk but couldn't because her vocal cords hadn't been used in so long. She motioned for a drink and I gave her some water. For some reason it had always worked better and restored her faster and even more instantaneously than it had me. So as soon as she swallowed the water it helped her to talk. After she managed to get over her silent laughing fit she managed to get out," You? Drill sergeant? That seems almost impossible. In any case, FIVE YEARS! What the Hades happened. It seemed like seconds. The last thing I remember is blacking out after I found Chase cheating on me and then walking to the dining pavilion where I collapsed. Next thing I know, I'm waking up in the infirmary." I chuckled and said," That's typically how it is for us demigods. In any case I'm glad you're awake and I can't wait for you to regain your strength so that I can whoop your butt." She laughed and said, "Whoa hold up. Are you forgetting that you never once beat me in a duel even if I was in a weakened state?" I said," I know but you still have to get back to full health. Apollo visited a lot and kept you arms and legs from atrophying but it's still going to a while to get back into fighting shape." She sighed and gave up and said," Alright help me up. I don't want to be stuck in the infirmary any more than I have to. You know how I hate them." I just chuckled and helped her out of the infirmary bed.

**Didn't see that coming did you? Well tell me what you guys think will happen next. Let me know what kind of training program you think she will go through at camp. What will the newer campers reactions be do you think? Let me know in your reviews.**


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